syntax.txt For Vim version 9.1. Last change: 2024 Dec 16
VIM REFERENCE MANUAL by Bram Moolenaar
Syntax highlighting syntax syntax-highlighting coloring
Syntax highlighting enables Vim to show parts of the text in another font or
color. Those parts can be specific keywords or text matching a pattern. Vim
doesn't parse the whole file (to keep it fast), so the highlighting has its
limitations. Lexical highlighting might be a better name, but since everybody
calls it syntax highlighting we'll stick with that.
Vim supports syntax highlighting on all terminals. But since most ordinary
terminals have very limited highlighting possibilities, it works best in the
GUI version, gvim.
In the User Manual:
usr_06.txt introduces syntax highlighting.
usr_44.txt introduces writing a syntax file.
1. Quick start :syn-qstart
2. Syntax files :syn-files
3. Syntax loading procedure syntax-loading
4. Converting to HTML 2html.vim
5. Syntax file remarks :syn-file-remarks
6. Defining a syntax :syn-define
7. :syntax arguments :syn-arguments
8. Syntax patterns :syn-pattern
9. Syntax clusters :syn-cluster
10. Including syntax files :syn-include
11. Synchronizing :syn-sync
12. Listing syntax items :syntax
13. Colorschemes color-schemes
14. Highlight command :highlight
15. Linking groups :highlight-link
16. Cleaning up :syn-clear
17. Highlighting tags tag-highlight
18. Window-local syntax :ownsyntax
19. Color xterms xterm-color
20. When syntax is slow :syntime
{Vi does not have any of these commands}
Syntax highlighting is not available when the +syntax feature has been
disabled at compile time.
==============================================================================
1. Quick start :syn-qstart
:syn-enable :syntax-enable
This command switches on syntax highlighting:
:syntax enable
What this command actually does is to execute the command
:source $VIMRUNTIME/syntax/syntax.vim
If the VIM environment variable is not set, Vim will try to find
the path in another way (see $VIMRUNTIME). Usually this works just
fine. If it doesn't, try setting the VIM environment variable to the
directory where the Vim stuff is located. For example, if your syntax files
are in the "/usr/vim/vim82/syntax" directory, set $VIMRUNTIME to
"/usr/vim/vim82". You must do this in the shell, before starting Vim.
This command also sources the menu.vim script when the GUI is running or
will start soon. See 'go-M' about avoiding that.
:syn-on :syntax-on
The `:syntax enable` command will keep most of your current color settings.
This allows using :highlight commands to set your preferred colors before or
after using this command. If you want Vim to overrule your settings with the
defaults, use:
:syntax on
:hi-normal :highlight-normal
If you are running in the GUI, you can get white text on a black background
with:
:highlight Normal guibg=Black guifg=White
For a color terminal see :hi-normal-cterm.
For setting up your own colors syntax highlighting see syncolor.
NOTE: The syntax files on MS-Windows have lines that end in <CR><NL>.
The files for Unix end in <NL>. This means you should use the right type of
file for your system. Although on MS-Windows the right format is
automatically selected if the 'fileformats' option is not empty.
NOTE: When using reverse video ("gvim -fg white -bg black"), the default value
of 'background' will not be set until the GUI window is opened, which is after
reading the gvimrc. This will cause the wrong default highlighting to be
used. To set the default value of 'background' before switching on
highlighting, include the ":gui" command in the gvimrc:
:gui " open window and set default for 'background'
:syntax on " start highlighting, use 'background' to set colors
NOTE: Using ":gui" in the gvimrc means that "gvim -f" won't start in the
foreground! Use ":gui -f" then.
g:syntax_on
You can toggle the syntax on/off with this command:
:if exists("g:syntax_on") | syntax off | else | syntax enable | endif
To put this into a mapping, you can use:
:map <F7> :if exists("g:syntax_on") <Bar>
\ syntax off <Bar>
\ else <Bar>
\ syntax enable <Bar>
\ endif <CR>
[using the <> notation, type this literally]
Details:
The ":syntax" commands are implemented by sourcing a file. To see exactly how
this works, look in the file:
command file
:syntax enable $VIMRUNTIME/syntax/syntax.vim
:syntax on $VIMRUNTIME/syntax/syntax.vim
:syntax manual $VIMRUNTIME/syntax/manual.vim
:syntax off $VIMRUNTIME/syntax/nosyntax.vim
Also see syntax-loading.
NOTE: If displaying long lines is slow and switching off syntax highlighting
makes it fast, consider setting the 'synmaxcol' option to a lower value.
==============================================================================
2. Syntax files :syn-files
The syntax and highlighting commands for one language are normally stored in
a syntax file. The name convention is: "{name}.vim". Where {name} is the
name of the language, or an abbreviation (to fit the name in 8.3 characters,
a requirement in case the file is used on a DOS filesystem).
Examples:
c.vim perl.vim java.vim html.vim
cpp.vim sh.vim csh.vim
The syntax file can contain any Ex commands, just like a vimrc file. But
the idea is that only commands for a specific language are included. When a
language is a superset of another language, it may include the other one,
for example, the cpp.vim file could include the c.vim file:
:so $VIMRUNTIME/syntax/c.vim
The .vim files are normally loaded with an autocommand. For example:
:au Syntax c runtime! syntax/c.vim
:au Syntax cpp runtime! syntax/cpp.vim
These commands are normally in the file $VIMRUNTIME/syntax/synload.vim.
MAKING YOUR OWN SYNTAX FILES mysyntaxfile
When you create your own syntax files, and you want to have Vim use these
automatically with ":syntax enable", do this:
1. Create your user runtime directory. You would normally use the first item
of the 'runtimepath' option. Example for Unix:
mkdir ~/.vim
2. Create a directory in there called "syntax". For Unix:
mkdir ~/.vim/syntax
3. Write the Vim syntax file. Or download one from the internet. Then write
it in your syntax directory. For example, for the "mine" syntax:
:w ~/.vim/syntax/mine.vim
Now you can start using your syntax file manually:
:set syntax=mine
You don't have to exit Vim to use this.
If you also want Vim to detect the type of file, see new-filetype.
If you are setting up a system with many users and you don't want each user
to add the same syntax file, you can use another directory from 'runtimepath'.
ADDING TO AN EXISTING SYNTAX FILE mysyntaxfile-add
If you are mostly satisfied with an existing syntax file, but would like to
add a few items or change the highlighting, follow these steps:
1. Create your user directory from 'runtimepath', see above.
2. Create a directory in there called "after/syntax". For Unix:
mkdir -p ~/.vim/after/syntax
3. Write a Vim script that contains the commands you want to use. For
example, to change the colors for the C syntax:
highlight cComment ctermfg=Green guifg=Green
4. Write that file in the "after/syntax" directory. Use the name of the
syntax, with ".vim" added. For our C syntax:
:w ~/.vim/after/syntax/c.vim
That's it. The next time you edit a C file the Comment color will be
different. You don't even have to restart Vim.
If you have multiple files, you can use the filetype as the directory name.
All the "*.vim" files in this directory will be used, for example:
~/.vim/after/syntax/c/one.vim
~/.vim/after/syntax/c/two.vim
REPLACING AN EXISTING SYNTAX FILE mysyntaxfile-replace
If you don't like a distributed syntax file, or you have downloaded a new
version, follow the same steps as for mysyntaxfile above. Just make sure
that you write the syntax file in a directory that is early in 'runtimepath'.
Vim will only load the first syntax file found, assuming that it sets
b:current_syntax.
NAMING CONVENTIONS group-name {group-name} E669 W18
A syntax group name is to be used for syntax items that match the same kind of
thing. These are then linked to a highlight group that specifies the color.
A syntax group name doesn't specify any color or attributes itself.
The name for a highlight or syntax group must consist of ASCII letters,
digits, underscores, dots, or hyphens. As a regexp: "[a-zA-Z0-9_.-]*".
However, Vim does not give an error when using other characters. The maximum
length of a group name is about 200 bytes. E1249
To be able to allow each user to pick their favorite set of colors, there must
be preferred names for highlight groups that are common for many languages.
These are the suggested group names (if syntax highlighting works properly
you can see the actual color, except for "Ignore"):
*Comment any comment
*Constant any constant
String a string constant: "this is a string"
Character a character constant: 'c', '\n'
Number a number constant: 234, 0xff
Boolean a boolean constant: TRUE, false
Float a floating point constant: 2.3e10
*Identifier any variable name
Function function name (also: methods for classes)
*Statement any statement
Conditional if, then, else, endif, switch, etc.
Repeat for, do, while, etc.
Label case, default, etc.
Operator "sizeof", "+", "*", etc.
Keyword any other keyword
Exception try, catch, throw
*PreProc generic Preprocessor
Include preprocessor #include
Define preprocessor #define
Macro same as Define
PreCondit preprocessor #if, #else, #endif, etc.
*Type int, long, char, etc.
StorageClass static, register, volatile, etc.
Structure struct, union, enum, etc.
Typedef A typedef
*Special any special symbol
SpecialChar special character in a constant
Tag you can use CTRL-] on this
Delimiter character that needs attention
SpecialComment special things inside a comment
Debug debugging statements
*Underlined text that stands out, HTML links
*Ignore left blank, hidden hl-Ignore
*Error any erroneous construct
*Todo anything that needs extra attention; mostly the
keywords TODO FIXME and XXX
*Added added line in a diff
*Changed changed line in a diff
*Removed removed line in a diff
The names marked with * are the preferred groups; the others are minor groups.
For the preferred groups, the "syntax.vim" file contains default highlighting.
The minor groups are linked to the preferred groups, so they get the same
highlighting. You can override these defaults by using ":highlight" commands
after sourcing the "syntax.vim" file.
Note that highlight group names are not case sensitive. "String" and "string"
can be used for the same group.
The following names are reserved and cannot be used as a group name:
NONE ALL ALLBUT contains contained
hl-Ignore
When using the Ignore group, you may also consider using the conceal
mechanism. See conceal.
==============================================================================
3. Syntax loading procedure syntax-loading
This explains the details that happen when the command ":syntax enable" is
issued. When Vim initializes itself, it finds out where the runtime files are
located. This is used here as the variable $VIMRUNTIME.
":syntax enable" and ":syntax on" do the following:
Source $VIMRUNTIME/syntax/syntax.vim
|
+- Clear out any old syntax by sourcing $VIMRUNTIME/syntax/nosyntax.vim
|
+- Source first syntax/synload.vim in 'runtimepath'
| |
| +- Setup the colors for syntax highlighting. If a color scheme is
| | defined it is loaded again with ":colors {name}". Otherwise
| | ":runtime! syntax/syncolor.vim" is used. ":syntax on" overrules
| | existing colors, ":syntax enable" only sets groups that weren't
| | set yet.
| |
| +- Set up syntax autocmds to load the appropriate syntax file when
| | the 'syntax' option is set. synload-1
| |
| +- Source the user's optional file, from the mysyntaxfile variable.
| This is for backwards compatibility with Vim 5.x only. synload-2
|
+- Do ":filetype on", which does ":runtime! filetype.vim". It loads any
| filetype.vim files found. It should always Source
| $VIMRUNTIME/filetype.vim, which does the following.
| |
| +- Install autocmds based on suffix to set the 'filetype' option
| | This is where the connection between file name and file type is
| | made for known file types. synload-3
| |
| +- Source the user's optional file, from the myfiletypefile
| | variable. This is for backwards compatibility with Vim 5.x only.
| | synload-4
| |
| +- Install one autocommand which sources scripts.vim when no file
| | type was detected yet. synload-5
| |
| +- Source $VIMRUNTIME/menu.vim, to setup the Syntax menu. menu.vim
|
+- Install a FileType autocommand to set the 'syntax' option when a file
| type has been detected. synload-6
|
+- Execute syntax autocommands to start syntax highlighting for each
already loaded buffer.
Upon loading a file, Vim finds the relevant syntax file as follows:
Loading the file triggers the BufReadPost autocommands.
|
+- If there is a match with one of the autocommands from synload-3
| (known file types) or synload-4 (user's file types), the 'filetype'
| option is set to the file type.
|
+- The autocommand at synload-5 is triggered. If the file type was not
| found yet, then scripts.vim is searched for in 'runtimepath'. This
| should always load $VIMRUNTIME/scripts.vim, which does the following.
| |
| +- Source the user's optional file, from the myscriptsfile
| | variable. This is for backwards compatibility with Vim 5.x only.
| |
| +- If the file type is still unknown, check the contents of the file,
| again with checks like "getline(1) =~ pattern" as to whether the
| file type can be recognized, and set 'filetype'.
|
+- When the file type was determined and 'filetype' was set, this
| triggers the FileType autocommand synload-6 above. It sets
| 'syntax' to the determined file type.
|
+- When the 'syntax' option was set above, this triggers an autocommand
| from synload-1 (and synload-2). This find the main syntax file in
| 'runtimepath', with this command:
| runtime! syntax/<name>.vim
|
+- Any other user installed FileType or Syntax autocommands are
triggered. This can be used to change the highlighting for a specific
syntax.
==============================================================================
4. Conversion to HTML 2html.vim convert-to-HTML
2html is not a syntax file itself, but a script that converts the current
window into HTML. Vim opens a new window in which it builds the HTML file.
After you save the resulting file, you can view it with any browser. The
colors should be exactly the same as you see them in Vim. With
g:html_line_ids you can jump to specific lines by adding (for example) #L123
or #123 to the end of the URL in your browser's address bar. And with
g:html_dynamic_folds enabled, you can show or hide the text that is folded
in Vim.
You are not supposed to set the 'filetype' or 'syntax' option to "2html"!
Source the script to convert the current file:
:runtime! syntax/2html.vim
Many variables affect the output of 2html.vim; see below. Any of the on/off
options listed below can be enabled or disabled by setting them explicitly to
the desired value, or restored to their default by removing the variable using
:unlet.
Remarks:
- Some truly ancient browsers may not show the background colors.
- From most browsers you can also print the file (in color)!
- The latest TOhtml may actually work with older versions of Vim, but some
features such as conceal support will not function, and the colors may be
incorrect for an old Vim without GUI support compiled in.
Here is an example how to run the script over all .c and .h files from a
Unix shell:
for f in *.[ch]; do gvim -f +"syn on" +"run! syntax/2html.vim" +"wq" +"q" $f; done
g:html_start_line g:html_end_line
To restrict the conversion to a range of lines, use a range with the :TOhtml
command below, or set "g:html_start_line" and "g:html_end_line" to the first
and last line to be converted. Example, using the last set Visual area:
:let g:html_start_line = line("'<")
:let g:html_end_line = line("'>")
:runtime! syntax/2html.vim
:TOhtml
:[range]TOhtml The ":TOhtml" command is defined in a standard plugin.
This command will source 2html.vim for you. When a
range is given, this command sets g:html_start_line
and g:html_end_line to the start and end of the
range, respectively. Default range is the entire
buffer.
If the current window is part of a diff, unless
g:html_diff_one_file is set, :TOhtml will convert
all windows which are part of the diff in the current
tab and place them side-by-side in a <table> element
in the generated HTML. With g:html_line_ids you can
jump to lines in specific windows with (for example)
#W1L42 for line 42 in the first diffed window, or
#W3L87 for line 87 in the third.
Examples:
:10,40TOhtml " convert lines 10-40 to html
:'<,'>TOhtml " convert current/last visual selection
:TOhtml " convert entire buffer
g:html_diff_one_file
Default: 0.
When 0, and using :TOhtml all windows involved in a diff in the current tab
page are converted to HTML and placed side-by-side in a <table> element. When
1, only the current buffer is converted.
Example:
let g:html_diff_one_file = 1
g:html_whole_filler
Default: 0.
When 0, if g:html_diff_one_file is 1, a sequence of more than 3 filler lines
is displayed as three lines with the middle line mentioning the total number
of inserted lines.
When 1, always display all inserted lines as if g:html_diff_one_file were
not set.
:let g:html_whole_filler = 1
TOhtml-performance g:html_no_progress
Default: 0.
When 0, display a progress bar in the statusline for each major step in the
2html.vim conversion process.
When 1, do not display the progress bar. This offers a minor speed improvement
but you won't have any idea how much longer the conversion might take; for big
files it can take a long time!
Example:
let g:html_no_progress = 1
You can obtain better performance improvements by also instructing Vim to not
run interactively, so that too much time is not taken to redraw as the script
moves through the buffer, switches windows, and the like:
vim -E -s -c "let g:html_no_progress=1" -c "syntax on" -c "set ft=c" -c "runtime syntax/2html.vim" -cwqa myfile.c
Note that the -s flag prevents loading your .vimrc and any plugins, so you
need to explicitly source/enable anything that will affect the HTML
conversion. See -E and -s-ex for details. It is probably best to create a
script to replace all the -c commands and use it with the -u flag instead of
specifying each command separately.
hl-TOhtmlProgress TOhtml-progress-color
When displayed, the progress bar will show colored boxes along the statusline
as the HTML conversion proceeds. By default, the background color as the
current "DiffDelete" highlight group is used. If "DiffDelete" and "StatusLine"
have the same background color, TOhtml will automatically adjust the color to
differ. If you do not like the automatically selected colors, you can define
your own highlight colors for the progress bar. Example:
hi TOhtmlProgress guifg=#c0ffee ctermbg=7
g:html_number_lines
Default: Current 'number' setting.
When 0, buffer text is displayed in the generated HTML without line numbering.
When 1, a column of line numbers is added to the generated HTML with the same
highlighting as the line number column in Vim (hl-LineNr).
Force line numbers even if 'number' is not set:
:let g:html_number_lines = 1
Force to omit the line numbers:
:let g:html_number_lines = 0
Go back to the default to use 'number' by deleting the variable:
:unlet g:html_number_lines
g:html_line_ids
Default: 1 if g:html_number_lines is set, 0 otherwise.
When 1, adds an HTML id attribute to each line number, or to an empty <span>
inserted for that purpose if no line numbers are shown. This ID attribute
takes the form of L123 for single-buffer HTML pages, or W2L123 for diff-view
pages, and is used to jump to a specific line (in a specific window of a diff
view). Javascript is inserted to open any closed dynamic folds
(g:html_dynamic_folds) containing the specified line before jumping. The
javascript also allows omitting the window ID in the url, and the leading L.
For example:
page.html#L123 jumps to line 123 in a single-buffer file
page.html#123 does the same
diff.html#W1L42 jumps to line 42 in the first window in a diff
diff.html#42 does the same
g:html_use_css
Default: 1.
When 1, generate valid HTML 5 markup with CSS styling, supported in all modern
browsers and many old browsers.
When 0, generate <font> tags and similar outdated markup. This is not
recommended but it may work better in really old browsers, email clients,
forum posts, and similar situations where basic CSS support is unavailable.
Example:
:let g:html_use_css = 0
g:html_ignore_conceal
Default: 0.
When 0, concealed text is removed from the HTML and replaced with a character
from :syn-cchar or 'listchars' as appropriate, depending on the current
value of 'conceallevel'.
When 1, include all text from the buffer in the generated HTML, even if it is
concealed.
Either of the following commands will ensure that all text in the buffer is
included in the generated HTML (unless it is folded):
:let g:html_ignore_conceal = 1
:setl conceallevel=0
g:html_ignore_folding
Default: 0.
When 0, text in a closed fold is replaced by the text shown for the fold in
Vim (fold-foldtext). See g:html_dynamic_folds if you also want to allow
the user to expand the fold as in Vim to see the text inside.
When 1, include all text from the buffer in the generated HTML; whether the
text is in a fold has no impact at all. g:html_dynamic_folds has no effect.
Either of these commands will ensure that all text in the buffer is included
in the generated HTML (unless it is concealed):
zR
:let g:html_ignore_folding = 1
g:html_dynamic_folds
Default: 0.
When 0, text in a closed fold is not included at all in the generated HTML.
When 1, generate javascript to open a fold and show the text within, just like
in Vim.
Setting this variable to 1 causes 2html.vim to always use CSS for styling,
regardless of what g:html_use_css is set to.
This variable is ignored when g:html_ignore_folding is set.
:let g:html_dynamic_folds = 1
g:html_no_foldcolumn
Default: 0.
When 0, if g:html_dynamic_folds is 1, generate a column of text similar to
Vim's foldcolumn (fold-foldcolumn) the user can click on to toggle folds
open or closed. The minimum width of the generated text column is the current
'foldcolumn' setting.
When 1, do not generate this column; instead, hovering the mouse cursor over
folded text will open the fold as if g:html_hover_unfold were set.
:let g:html_no_foldcolumn = 1
TOhtml-uncopyable-text g:html_prevent_copy
Default: Empty string.
This option prevents certain regions of the generated HTML from being copied,
when you select all text in document rendered in a browser and copy it. Useful
for allowing users to copy-paste only the source text even if a fold column or
line numbers are shown in the generated content. Specify regions to be
affected in this way as follows:
f: fold column
n: line numbers (also within fold text)
t: fold text
d: diff filler
Example, to make the fold column and line numbers uncopyable:
:let g:html_prevent_copy = "fn"
The method used to prevent copying in the generated page depends on the value
of g:html_use_input_for_pc.
g:html_use_input_for_pc
Default: "none"
If g:html_prevent_copy is non-empty, then:
When "all", read-only <input> elements are used in place of normal text for
uncopyable regions. In some browsers, especially older browsers, after
selecting an entire page and copying the selection, the <input> tags are not
pasted with the page text. If g:html_no_invalid is 0, the <input> tags have
invalid type; this works in more browsers, but the page will not validate.
Note: This method does NOT work in recent versions of Chrome and equivalent
browsers; the <input> tags get pasted with the text.
When "fallback" (default value), the same <input> elements are generated for
older browsers, but newer browsers (detected by CSS feature query) hide the
<input> elements and instead use generated content in an ::before pseudoelement
to display the uncopyable text. This method should work with the largest
number of browsers, both old and new.
When "none", the <input> elements are not generated at all. Only the
generated-content method is used. This means that old browsers, notably
Internet Explorer, will either copy the text intended not to be copyable, or
the non-copyable text may not appear at all. However, this is the most
standards-based method, and there will be much less markup.
g:html_no_invalid
Default: 0.
When 0, if g:html_prevent_copy is non-empty and g:html_use_input_for_pc is
not "none", an invalid attribute is intentionally inserted into the <input>
element for the uncopyable areas. This prevents pasting the <input> elements
in some applications. Specifically, some versions of Microsoft Word will not
paste the <input> elements if they contain this invalid attribute. When 1, no
invalid markup is inserted, and the generated page should validate. However,
<input> elements may be pasted into some applications and can be difficult to
remove afterward.
g:html_hover_unfold
Default: 0.
When 0, the only way to open a fold generated by 2html.vim with
g:html_dynamic_folds set, is to click on the generated fold column.
When 1, use CSS 2.0 to allow the user to open a fold by moving the mouse
cursor over the displayed fold text. This is useful to allow users with
disabled javascript to view the folded text.
Note that old browsers (notably Internet Explorer 6) will not support this
feature. Browser-specific markup for IE6 is included to fall back to the
normal CSS1 styling so that the folds show up correctly for this browser, but
they will not be openable without a foldcolumn.
:let g:html_hover_unfold = 1
g:html_id_expr
Default: ""
Dynamic folding and jumping to line IDs rely on unique IDs within the document
to work. If generated HTML is copied into a larger document, these IDs are no
longer guaranteed to be unique. Set g:html_id_expr to an expression Vim can
evaluate to get a unique string to append to each ID used in a given document,
so that the full IDs will be unique even when combined with other content in a
larger HTML document. Example, to append _ and the buffer number to each ID:
:let g:html_id_expr = '"_" .. bufnr("%")'
To append a string "_mystring" to the end of each ID:
:let g:html_id_expr = '"_mystring"'
Note: When converting a diff view to HTML, the expression will only be
evaluated for the first window in the diff, and the result used for all the
windows.
TOhtml-wrap-text g:html_pre_wrap
Default: Current 'wrap' setting.
When 0, if g:html_no_pre is 0 or unset, the text in the generated HTML does
not wrap at the edge of the browser window.
When 1, if g:html_use_css is 1, the CSS 2.0 "white-space:pre-wrap" value is
used, causing the text to wrap at whitespace at the edge of the browser
window.
Explicitly enable text wrapping:
:let g:html_pre_wrap = 1
Explicitly disable wrapping:
:let g:html_pre_wrap = 0
Go back to default, determine wrapping from 'wrap' setting:
:unlet g:html_pre_wrap
g:html_no_pre
Default: 0.
When 0, buffer text in the generated HTML is surrounded by <pre>...</pre>
tags. Series of whitespace is shown as in Vim without special markup, and tab
characters can be included literally (see g:html_expand_tabs).
When 1 (not recommended), the <pre> tags are omitted, and a plain <div> is
used instead. Whitespace is replaced by a series of character
references, and <br> is used to end each line. This is another way to allow
text in the generated HTML is wrap (see g:html_pre_wrap) which also works in
old browsers, but may cause noticeable differences between Vim's display and
the rendered page generated by 2html.vim.
:let g:html_no_pre = 1
g:html_no_doc
Default: 0.
When 1 it doesn't generate a full HTML document with a DOCTYPE, <head>,
<body>, etc. If g:html_use_css is enabled (the default) you'll have to
define the CSS manually. The g:html_dynamic_folds and g:html_line_ids
settings (off by default) also insert some JavaScript.
g:html_no_links
Default: 0.
Don't generate <a> tags for text that looks like an URL.
g:html_no_modeline
Default: 0.
Don't generate a modeline disabling folding.
g:html_expand_tabs
Default: 0 if 'tabstop' is 8, 'expandtab' is 0, 'vartabstop' is not in use,
and no fold column or line numbers occur in the generated HTML;
1 otherwise.
When 1, <Tab> characters in the buffer text are replaced with an appropriate
number of space characters, or references if g:html_no_pre is 1.
When 0, if g:html_no_pre is 0 or unset, <Tab> characters in the buffer text
are included as-is in the generated HTML. This is useful for when you want to
allow copy and paste from a browser without losing the actual whitespace in
the source document. Note that this can easily break text alignment and
indentation in the HTML, unless set by default.
Force 2html.vim to keep <Tab> characters:
:let g:html_expand_tabs = 0
Force tabs to be expanded:
:let g:html_expand_tabs = 1
TOhtml-encoding-detect TOhtml-encoding
It is highly recommended to set your desired encoding with
g:html_use_encoding for any content which will be placed on a web server.
If you do not specify an encoding, 2html.vim uses the preferred IANA name
for the current value of 'fileencoding' if set, or 'encoding' if not.
'encoding' is always used for certain 'buftype' values. 'fileencoding' will be
set to match the chosen document encoding.
Automatic detection works for the encodings mentioned specifically by name in
encoding-names, but TOhtml will only automatically use those encodings with
wide browser support. However, you can override this to support specific
encodings that may not be automatically detected by default (see options
below). See http://www.iana.org/assignments/character-sets for the IANA names.
Note: By default all Unicode encodings are converted to UTF-8 with no BOM in
the generated HTML, as recommended by W3C:
http://www.w3.org/International/questions/qa-choosing-encodings
http://www.w3.org/International/questions/qa-byte-order-mark
g:html_use_encoding
Default: none, uses IANA name for current 'fileencoding' as above.
To overrule all automatic charset detection, set g:html_use_encoding to the
name of the charset to be used. It is recommended to set this variable to
something widely supported, like UTF-8, for anything you will be hosting on a
webserver:
:let g:html_use_encoding = "UTF-8"
You can also use this option to omit the line that specifies the charset
entirely, by setting g:html_use_encoding to an empty string (NOT recommended):
:let g:html_use_encoding = ""
To go back to the automatic mechanism, delete the g:html_use_encoding
variable:
:unlet g:html_use_encoding
g:html_encoding_override
Default: none, autoload/tohtml.vim contains default conversions for encodings
mentioned by name at encoding-names.
This option allows 2html.vim to detect the correct 'fileencoding' when you
specify an encoding with g:html_use_encoding which is not in the default
list of conversions.
This is a dictionary of charset-encoding pairs that will replace existing
pairs automatically detected by TOhtml, or supplement with new pairs.
Detect the HTML charset "windows-1252" as the encoding "8bit-cp1252":
:let g:html_encoding_override = {'windows-1252': '8bit-cp1252'}
g:html_charset_override
Default: none, autoload/tohtml.vim contains default conversions for encodings
mentioned by name at encoding-names and which have wide
browser support.
This option allows 2html.vim to detect the HTML charset for any
'fileencoding' or 'encoding' which is not detected automatically. You can also
use it to override specific existing encoding-charset pairs. For example,
TOhtml will by default use UTF-8 for all Unicode/UCS encodings. To use UTF-16
and UTF-32 instead, use:
:let g:html_charset_override = {'ucs-4': 'UTF-32', 'utf-16': 'UTF-16'}
Note that documents encoded in either UTF-32 or UTF-16 have known
compatibility problems with some major browsers.
g:html_font
Default: "monospace"
You can specify the font or fonts used in the converted document using
g:html_font. If this option is set to a string, then the value will be
surrounded with single quotes. If this option is set to a list then each list
item is surrounded by single quotes and the list is joined with commas. Either
way, "monospace" is added as the fallback generic family name and the entire
result used as the font family (using CSS) or font face (if not using CSS).
Examples:
" font-family: 'Consolas', monospace;
:let g:html_font = "Consolas"
" font-family: 'DejaVu Sans Mono', 'Consolas', monospace;
:let g:html_font = ["DejaVu Sans Mono", "Consolas"]
convert-to-XML convert-to-XHTML g:html_use_xhtml
Default: 0.
When 0, generate standard HTML 4.01 (strict when possible).
When 1, generate XHTML 1.0 instead (XML compliant HTML).
:let g:html_use_xhtml = 1
==============================================================================
5. Syntax file remarks
b:current_syntax-variable
Vim stores the name of the syntax that has been loaded in the
"b:current_syntax" variable. You can use this if you want to load other
settings, depending on which syntax is active. Example:
:au BufReadPost * if b:current_syntax == "csh"
:au BufReadPost * do-some-things
:au BufReadPost * endif
ABEL abel.vim ft-abel-syntax
ABEL highlighting provides some user-defined options. To enable them, assign
any value to the respective variable. Example:
:let abel_obsolete_ok=1
To disable them use ":unlet". Example:
:unlet abel_obsolete_ok
Variable Highlight
abel_obsolete_ok obsolete keywords are statements, not errors
abel_cpp_comments_illegal do not interpret '//' as inline comment leader
ADA
See ft-ada-syntax
ANT ant.vim ft-ant-syntax
The ant syntax file provides syntax highlighting for javascript and python
by default. Syntax highlighting for other script languages can be installed
by the function AntSyntaxScript(), which takes the tag name as first argument
and the script syntax file name as second argument. Example:
:call AntSyntaxScript('perl', 'perl.vim')
will install syntax perl highlighting for the following ant code
<script language = 'perl'><![CDATA[
# everything inside is highlighted as perl
]]></script>
See mysyntaxfile-add for installing script languages permanently.
APACHE apache.vim ft-apache-syntax
The apache syntax file provides syntax highlighting for Apache HTTP server
version 2.2.3.
asm.vim asmh8300.vim nasm.vim masm.vim asm68k
ASSEMBLY ft-asm-syntax ft-asmh8300-syntax ft-nasm-syntax
ft-masm-syntax ft-asm68k-syntax fasm.vim
Files matching "*.i" could be Progress or Assembly. If the automatic detection
doesn't work for you, or you don't edit Progress at all, use this in your
startup vimrc:
:let filetype_i = "asm"
Replace "asm" with the type of assembly you use.
There are many types of assembly languages that all use the same file name
extensions. Therefore you will have to select the type yourself, or add a
line in the assembly file that Vim will recognize. Currently these syntax
files are included:
asm GNU assembly (usually have .s or .S extension and were
already built using C compiler such as GCC or CLANG)
asm68k Motorola 680x0 assembly
asmh8300 Hitachi H-8300 version of GNU assembly
ia64 Intel Itanium 64
fasm Flat assembly (http://flatassembler.net)
masm Microsoft assembly (.masm files are compiled with
Microsoft's Macro Assembler. This is only supported
for x86, x86_64, ARM and AARCH64 CPU families)
nasm Netwide assembly
tasm Turbo Assembly (with opcodes 80x86 up to Pentium, and
MMX)
pic PIC assembly (currently for PIC16F84)
The most flexible is to add a line in your assembly file containing:
asmsyntax=nasm
Replace "nasm" with the name of the real assembly syntax. This line must be
one of the first five lines in the file. No non-white text must be
immediately before or after this text. Note that specifying asmsyntax=foo is
equivalent to setting ft=foo in a modeline, and that in case of a conflict
between the two settings the one from the modeline will take precedence (in
particular, if you have ft=asm in the modeline, you will get the GNU syntax
highlighting regardless of what is specified as asmsyntax).
The syntax type can always be overruled for a specific buffer by setting the
b:asmsyntax variable:
:let b:asmsyntax = "nasm"
If b:asmsyntax is not set, either automatically or by hand, then the value of
the global variable asmsyntax is used. This can be seen as a default assembly
language:
:let asmsyntax = "nasm"
As a last resort, if nothing is defined, the "asm" syntax is used.
Netwide assembler (nasm.vim) optional highlighting
To enable a feature:
:let {variable}=1|set syntax=nasm
To disable a feature:
:unlet {variable} |set syntax=nasm
Variable Highlight
nasm_loose_syntax unofficial parser allowed syntax not as Error
(parser dependent; not recommended)
nasm_ctx_outside_macro contexts outside macro not as Error
nasm_no_warn potentially risky syntax not as ToDo
ASTRO astro.vim ft-astro-syntax
Configuration
The following variables control certain syntax highlighting features.
You can add them to your .vimrc.
To enable TypeScript and TSX for ".astro" files (default "disable"):
let g:astro_typescript = "enable"
To enable Stylus for ".astro" files (default "disable"):
let g:astro_stylus = "enable"
NOTE: You need to install an external plugin to support stylus in astro files.
ASPPERL ft-aspperl-syntax
ASPVBS ft-aspvbs-syntax
*.asp and *.asa files could be either Perl or Visual Basic script. Since it's
hard to detect this you can set two global variables to tell Vim what you are
using. For Perl script use:
:let g:filetype_asa = "aspperl"
:let g:filetype_asp = "aspperl"
For Visual Basic use:
:let g:filetype_asa = "aspvbs"
:let g:filetype_asp = "aspvbs"
ASYMPTOTE asy.vim ft-asy-syntax
By default, only basic Asymptote keywords are highlighted. To highlight
extended geometry keywords:
:let g:asy_syn_plain = 1
and for highlighting keywords related to 3D constructions:
:let g:asy_syn_three = 1
By default, Asymptote-defined colors (e.g: lightblue) are highlighted. To
highlight TeX-defined colors (e.g: BlueViolet) use:
:let g:asy_syn_texcolors = 1
or for Xorg colors (e.g: AliceBlue):
:let g:asy_syn_x11colors = 1
BAAN baan.vim baan-syntax
The baan.vim gives syntax support for BaanC of release BaanIV up to SSA ERP LN
for both 3 GL and 4 GL programming. Large number of standard defines/constants
are supported.
Some special violation of coding standards will be signalled when one specify
in ones .vimrc:
let baan_code_stds=1
baan-folding
Syntax folding can be enabled at various levels through the variables
mentioned below (Set those in your .vimrc). The more complex folding on
source blocks and SQL can be CPU intensive.
To allow any folding and enable folding at function level use:
let baan_fold=1
Folding can be enabled at source block level as if, while, for ,... The
indentation preceding the begin/end keywords has to match (spaces are not
considered equal to a tab).
let baan_fold_block=1
Folding can be enabled for embedded SQL blocks as SELECT, SELECTDO,
SELECTEMPTY, ... The indentation preceding the begin/end keywords has to
match (spaces are not considered equal to a tab).
let baan_fold_sql=1
Note: Block folding can result in many small folds. It is suggested to :set
the options 'foldminlines' and 'foldnestmax' in .vimrc or use :setlocal in
.../after/syntax/baan.vim (see after-directory). Eg:
set foldminlines=5
set foldnestmax=6
BASIC basic.vim vb.vim ft-basic-syntax ft-vb-syntax
Both Visual Basic and "normal" BASIC use the extension ".bas". To detect
which one should be used, Vim checks for the string "VB_Name" in the first
five lines of the file. If it is not found, filetype will be "basic",
otherwise "vb". Files with the ".frm" extension will always be seen as Visual
Basic.
If the automatic detection doesn't work for you or you only edit, for
example, FreeBASIC files, use this in your startup vimrc:
:let filetype_bas = "freebasic"
C c.vim ft-c-syntax
A few things in C highlighting are optional. To enable them assign any value
(including zero) to the respective variable. Example:
:let c_comment_strings = 1
:let c_no_bracket_error = 0
To disable them use :unlet. Example:
:unlet c_comment_strings
Setting the value to zero doesn't work!
An alternative is to switch to the C++ highlighting:
:set filetype=cpp
Variable Highlight
c_gnu GNU gcc specific items
strings and numbers inside a comment
c_space_errors trailing white space and spaces before a <Tab>
c_no_trail_space_error ... but no trailing spaces
c_no_tab_space_error ... but no spaces before a <Tab>
c_no_bracket_error don't highlight {}; inside [] as errors
c_no_curly_error don't highlight {}; inside [] and () as errors;
...except { and } in first column
Default is to highlight them, otherwise you
can't spot a missing ")".
c_curly_error highlight a missing } by finding all pairs; this
forces syncing from the start of the file, can be slow
c_no_ansi don't do standard ANSI types and constants
c_ansi_typedefs ... but do standard ANSI types
c_ansi_constants ... but do standard ANSI constants
c_no_utf don't highlight \u and \U in strings
c_syntax_for_h for *.h files use C syntax instead of C++ and use objc
syntax instead of objcpp
c_no_if0 don't highlight "#if 0" blocks as comments
c_no_cformat don't highlight %-formats in strings
c_no_c99 don't highlight C99 standard items
c_no_c11 don't highlight C11 standard items
c_no_bsd don't highlight BSD specific types
c_functions highlight function calls and definitions
c_function_pointers highlight function pointers definitions
When 'foldmethod' is set to "syntax" then /* */ comments and { } blocks will
become a fold. If you don't want comments to become a fold use:
:let c_no_comment_fold = 1
"#if 0" blocks are also folded, unless:
:let c_no_if0_fold = 1
If you notice highlighting errors while scrolling backwards, which are fixed
when redrawing with CTRL-L, try setting the "c_minlines" internal variable
to a larger number:
:let c_minlines = 100
This will make the syntax synchronization start 100 lines before the first
displayed line. The default value is 50 (15 when c_no_if0 is set). The
disadvantage of using a larger number is that redrawing can become slow.
When using the "#if 0" / "#endif" comment highlighting, notice that this only
works when the "#if 0" is within "c_minlines" from the top of the window. If
you have a long "#if 0" construct it will not be highlighted correctly.
To match extra items in comments, use the cCommentGroup cluster.
Example:
:au Syntax c call MyCadd()
:function MyCadd()
: syn keyword cMyItem contained Ni
: syn cluster cCommentGroup add=cMyItem
: hi link cMyItem Title
:endfun
ANSI constants will be highlighted with the "cConstant" group. This includes
"NULL", "SIG_IGN" and others. But not "TRUE", for example, because this is
not in the ANSI standard. If you find this confusing, remove the cConstant
highlighting:
:hi link cConstant NONE
If you see '{' and '}' highlighted as an error where they are OK, reset the
highlighting for cErrInParen and cErrInBracket.
If you want to use folding in your C files, you can add these lines in a file
in the "after" directory in 'runtimepath'. For Unix this would be
~/.vim/after/syntax/c.vim.
syn sync fromstart
set foldmethod=syntax
CH ch.vim ft-ch-syntax
C/C++ interpreter. Ch has similar syntax highlighting to C and builds upon
the C syntax file. See c.vim for all the settings that are available for C.
By setting a variable you can tell Vim to use Ch syntax for *.h files, instead
of C or C++:
:let ch_syntax_for_h = 1
CHILL chill.vim ft-chill-syntax
Chill syntax highlighting is similar to C. See c.vim for all the settings
that are available. Additionally there is:
chill_space_errors like c_space_errors
chill_comment_string like c_comment_strings
chill_minlines like c_minlines
CHANGELOG changelog.vim ft-changelog-syntax
ChangeLog supports highlighting spaces at the start of a line.
If you do not like this, add following line to your .vimrc:
let g:changelog_spacing_errors = 0
This works the next time you edit a changelog file. You can also use
"b:changelog_spacing_errors" to set this per buffer (before loading the syntax
file).
You can change the highlighting used, e.g., to flag the spaces as an error:
:hi link ChangelogError Error
Or to avoid the highlighting:
:hi link ChangelogError NONE
This works immediately.
CLOJURE ft-clojure-syntax
g:clojure_syntax_keywords
Syntax highlighting of public vars in "clojure.core" is provided by default,
but additional symbols can be highlighted by adding them to the
g:clojure_syntax_keywords variable. The value should be a Dictionary of
syntax group names, each containing a List of identifiers.
let g:clojure_syntax_keywords = {
\ 'clojureMacro': ["defproject", "defcustom"],
\ 'clojureFunc': ["string/join", "string/replace"]
\ }
Refer to the Clojure syntax script for valid syntax group names.
There is also b:clojure_syntax_keywords which is a buffer-local variant of
this variable intended for use by plugin authors to highlight symbols
dynamically.
By setting the b:clojure_syntax_without_core_keywords variable, vars from
"clojure.core" will not be highlighted by default. This is useful for
namespaces that have set `(:refer-clojure :only [])`
g:clojure_fold
Setting g:clojure_fold to 1 will enable the folding of Clojure code. Any
list, vector or map that extends over more than one line can be folded using
the standard Vim fold-commands.
g:clojure_discard_macro
Set this variable to 1 to enable basic highlighting of Clojure's "discard
reader macro".
#_(defn foo [x]
(println x))
Note that this option will not correctly highlight stacked discard macros
(e.g. #_#_).
COBOL cobol.vim ft-cobol-syntax
COBOL highlighting has different needs for legacy code than it does for fresh
development. This is due to differences in what is being done (maintenance
versus development) and other factors. To enable legacy code highlighting,
add this line to your .vimrc:
:let cobol_legacy_code = 1
To disable it again, use this:
:unlet cobol_legacy_code
COLD FUSION coldfusion.vim ft-coldfusion-syntax
The ColdFusion has its own version of HTML comments. To turn on ColdFusion
comment highlighting, add the following line to your startup file:
:let html_wrong_comments = 1
The ColdFusion syntax file is based on the HTML syntax file.
CPP cpp.vim ft-cpp-syntax
Most things are the same as ft-c-syntax.
Variable Highlight
cpp_no_cpp11 don't highlight C++11 standard items
cpp_no_cpp14 don't highlight C++14 standard items
cpp_no_cpp17 don't highlight C++17 standard items
cpp_no_cpp20 don't highlight C++20 standard items
CSH csh.vim ft-csh-syntax
This covers the shell named "csh". Note that on some systems tcsh is actually
used.
Detecting whether a file is csh or tcsh is notoriously hard. Some systems
symlink /bin/csh to /bin/tcsh, making it almost impossible to distinguish
between csh and tcsh. In case VIM guesses wrong you can set the
"filetype_csh" variable. For using csh: g:filetype_csh
:let g:filetype_csh = "csh"
For using tcsh:
:let g:filetype_csh = "tcsh"
Any script with a tcsh extension or a standard tcsh filename (.tcshrc,
tcsh.tcshrc, tcsh.login) will have filetype tcsh. All other tcsh/csh scripts
will be classified as tcsh, UNLESS the "filetype_csh" variable exists. If the
"filetype_csh" variable exists, the filetype will be set to the value of the
variable.
CSV ft-csv-syntax
If you change the delimiter of a CSV file, its syntax highlighting will no
longer match the changed file content. You will need to unlet the following
variable:
:unlet b:csv_delimiter
And afterwards save and reload the file:
:w
:e
Now the syntax engine should determine the newly changed CSV delimiter.
CYNLIB cynlib.vim ft-cynlib-syntax
Cynlib files are C++ files that use the Cynlib class library to enable
hardware modelling and simulation using C++. Typically Cynlib files have a .cc
or a .cpp extension, which makes it very difficult to distinguish them from a
normal C++ file. Thus, to enable Cynlib highlighting for .cc files, add this
line to your .vimrc file:
:let cynlib_cyntax_for_cc=1
Similarly for cpp files (this extension is only usually used in Windows)
:let cynlib_cyntax_for_cpp=1
To disable these again, use this:
:unlet cynlib_cyntax_for_cc
:unlet cynlib_cyntax_for_cpp
CWEB cweb.vim ft-cweb-syntax
Files matching "*.w" could be Progress or cweb. If the automatic detection
doesn't work for you, or you don't edit Progress at all, use this in your
startup vimrc:
:let filetype_w = "cweb"
DART dart.vim ft-dart-syntax
Dart is an object-oriented, typed, class defined, garbage collected language
used for developing mobile, desktop, web, and back-end applications. Dart uses
a C-like syntax derived from C, Java, and JavaScript, with features adopted
from Smalltalk, Python, Ruby, and others.
More information about the language and its development environment at the
official Dart language website at https://dart.dev
dart.vim syntax detects and highlights Dart statements, reserved words,
type declarations, storage classes, conditionals, loops, interpolated values,
and comments. There is no support idioms from Flutter or any other Dart
framework.
Changes, fixes? Submit an issue or pull request via:
https://github.com/pr3d4t0r/dart-vim-syntax/
DESKTOP desktop.vim ft-desktop-syntax
Primary goal of this syntax file is to highlight .desktop and .directory files
according to freedesktop.org standard:
https://specifications.freedesktop.org/desktop-entry-spec/latest/
To highlight nonstandard extensions that does not begin with X-, set
let g:desktop_enable_nonstd = 1
Note that this may cause wrong highlight.
To highlight KDE-reserved features, set
let g:desktop_enable_kde = 1
g:desktop_enable_kde follows g:desktop_enable_nonstd if not supplied
DIFF diff.vim
The diff highlighting normally finds translated headers. This can be slow if
there are very long lines in the file. To disable translations:
:let diff_translations = 0
Also see diff-slow.
DIRCOLORS dircolors.vim ft-dircolors-syntax
The dircolors utility highlighting definition has one option. It exists to
provide compatibility with the Slackware GNU/Linux distributions version of
the command. It adds a few keywords that are generally ignored by most
versions. On Slackware systems, however, the utility accepts the keywords and
uses them for processing. To enable the Slackware keywords add the following
line to your startup file:
let dircolors_is_slackware = 1
DOCBOOK docbk.vim ft-docbk-syntax docbook
DOCBOOK XML docbkxml.vim ft-docbkxml-syntax
DOCBOOK SGML docbksgml.vim ft-docbksgml-syntax
There are two types of DocBook files: SGML and XML. To specify what type you
are using the "b:docbk_type" variable should be set. Vim does this for you
automatically if it can recognize the type. When Vim can't guess it the type
defaults to XML.
You can set the type manually:
:let docbk_type = "sgml"
or:
:let docbk_type = "xml"
You need to do this before loading the syntax file, which is complicated.
Simpler is setting the filetype to "docbkxml" or "docbksgml":
:set filetype=docbksgml
or:
:set filetype=docbkxml
You can specify the DocBook version:
:let docbk_ver = 3
When not set 4 is used.
DOSBATCH dosbatch.vim ft-dosbatch-syntax
Select the set of Windows Command interpreter extensions that should be
supported with the variable dosbatch_cmdextversion. For versions of Windows
NT (before Windows 2000) this should have the value of 1. For Windows 2000
and later it should be 2.
Select the version you want with the following line:
:let dosbatch_cmdextversion = 1
If this variable is not defined it defaults to a value of 2 to support
Windows 2000 and later.
The original MS-DOS supports an idiom of using a double colon (::) as an
alternative way to enter a comment line. This idiom can be used with the
current Windows Command Interpreter, but it can lead to problems when used
inside ( ... ) command blocks. You can find a discussion about this on
Stack Overflow -
https://stackoverflow.com/questions/12407800/which-comment-style-should-i-use-in-batch-files
To allow the use of the :: idiom for comments in command blocks with the
Windows Command Interpreter set the dosbatch_colons_comment variable to
anything:
:let dosbatch_colons_comment = 1
If this variable is set then a :: comment that is the last line in a command
block will be highlighted as an error.
There is an option that covers whether *.btm files should be detected as type
"dosbatch" (MS-DOS batch files) or type "btm" (4DOS batch files). The latter
is used by default. You may select the former with the following line:
:let g:dosbatch_syntax_for_btm = 1
If this variable is undefined or zero, btm syntax is selected.
DOXYGEN doxygen.vim doxygen-syntax
Doxygen generates code documentation using a special documentation format
(similar to Javadoc). This syntax script adds doxygen highlighting to c, cpp,
idl and php files, and should also work with java.
There are a few of ways to turn on doxygen formatting. It can be done
explicitly or in a modeline by appending '.doxygen' to the syntax of the file.
Example:
:set syntax=c.doxygen
or
// vim:syntax=c.doxygen
It can also be done automatically for C, C++, C#, IDL and PHP files by setting
the global or buffer-local variable load_doxygen_syntax. This is done by
adding the following to your .vimrc.
:let g:load_doxygen_syntax=1
There are a couple of variables that have an effect on syntax highlighting,
and are to do with non-standard highlighting options.
Variable Default Effect
g:doxygen_enhanced_color
g:doxygen_enhanced_colour 0 Use non-standard highlighting for
doxygen comments.
doxygen_my_rendering 0 Disable rendering of HTML bold, italic
and html_my_rendering underline.
doxygen_javadoc_autobrief 1 Set to 0 to disable javadoc autobrief
colour highlighting.
doxygen_end_punctuation '[.]' Set to regexp match for the ending
punctuation of brief
There are also some highlight groups worth mentioning as they can be useful in
configuration.
Highlight Effect
doxygenErrorComment The colour of an end-comment when missing
punctuation in a code, verbatim or dot section
doxygenLinkError The colour of an end-comment when missing the
\endlink from a \link section.
DTD dtd.vim ft-dtd-syntax
The DTD syntax highlighting is case sensitive by default. To disable
case-sensitive highlighting, add the following line to your startup file:
:let dtd_ignore_case=1
The DTD syntax file will highlight unknown tags as errors. If
this is annoying, it can be turned off by setting:
:let dtd_no_tag_errors=1
before sourcing the dtd.vim syntax file.
Parameter entity names are highlighted in the definition using the
'Type' highlighting group and 'Comment' for punctuation and '%'.
Parameter entity instances are highlighted using the 'Constant'
highlighting group and the 'Type' highlighting group for the
delimiters % and ;. This can be turned off by setting:
:let dtd_no_param_entities=1
The DTD syntax file is also included by xml.vim to highlight included dtd's.
EIFFEL eiffel.vim ft-eiffel-syntax
While Eiffel is not case-sensitive, its style guidelines are, and the
syntax highlighting file encourages their use. This also allows to
highlight class names differently. If you want to disable case-sensitive
highlighting, add the following line to your startup file:
:let eiffel_ignore_case=1
Case still matters for class names and TODO marks in comments.
Conversely, for even stricter checks, add one of the following lines:
:let eiffel_strict=1
:let eiffel_pedantic=1
Setting eiffel_strict will only catch improper capitalization for the
five predefined words "Current", "Void", "Result", "Precursor", and
"NONE", to warn against their accidental use as feature or class names.
Setting eiffel_pedantic will enforce adherence to the Eiffel style
guidelines fairly rigorously (like arbitrary mixes of upper- and
lowercase letters as well as outdated ways to capitalize keywords).
If you want to use the lower-case version of "Current", "Void",
"Result", and "Precursor", you can use
:let eiffel_lower_case_predef=1
instead of completely turning case-sensitive highlighting off.
Support for ISE's proposed new creation syntax that is already
experimentally handled by some compilers can be enabled by:
:let eiffel_ise=1
Finally, some vendors support hexadecimal constants. To handle them, add
:let eiffel_hex_constants=1
to your startup file.
EUPHORIA euphoria3.vim euphoria4.vim ft-euphoria-syntax
Two syntax highlighting files exist for Euphoria. One for Euphoria
version 3.1.1, which is the default syntax highlighting file, and one for
Euphoria version 4.0.5 or later.
Euphoria version 3.1.1 (http://www.rapideuphoria.com/ link seems dead) is
still necessary for developing applications for the DOS platform, which
Euphoria version 4 (http://www.openeuphoria.org/) does not support.
The following file extensions are auto-detected as Euphoria file type:
*.e, *.eu, *.ew, *.ex, *.exu, *.exw
*.E, *.EU, *.EW, *.EX, *.EXU, *.EXW
To select syntax highlighting file for Euphoria, as well as for
auto-detecting the *.e and *.E file extensions as Euphoria file type,
add the following line to your startup file:
:let g:filetype_euphoria = "euphoria3"
or
:let g:filetype_euphoria = "euphoria4"
Elixir and Euphoria share the *.ex file extension. If the filetype is
specifically set as Euphoria with the g:filetype_euphoria variable, or the
file is determined to be Euphoria based on keywords in the file, then the
filetype will be set as Euphoria. Otherwise, the filetype will default to
Elixir.
ERLANG erlang.vim ft-erlang-syntax
Erlang is a functional programming language developed by Ericsson. Files with
the following extensions are recognized as Erlang files: erl, hrl, yaws.
The BIFs (built-in functions) are highlighted by default. To disable this,
put the following line in your vimrc:
:let g:erlang_highlight_bifs = 0
To enable highlighting some special atoms, put this in your vimrc:
:let g:erlang_highlight_special_atoms = 1
ELIXIR elixir.vim ft-elixir-syntax
Elixir is a dynamic, functional language for building scalable and
maintainable applications.
The following file extensions are auto-detected as Elixir file types:
*.ex, *.exs, *.eex, *.leex, *.lock
Elixir and Euphoria share the *.ex file extension. If the filetype is
specifically set as Euphoria with the g:filetype_euphoria variable, or the
file is determined to be Euphoria based on keywords in the file, then the
filetype will be set as Euphoria. Otherwise, the filetype will default to
Elixir.
FLEXWIKI flexwiki.vim ft-flexwiki-syntax
FlexWiki is an ASP.NET-based wiki package which used to be available at
http://www.flexwiki.com
NOTE: This site currently doesn't work, on Wikipedia is mentioned that
development stopped in 2009.
Syntax highlighting is available for the most common elements of FlexWiki
syntax. The associated ftplugin script sets some buffer-local options to make
editing FlexWiki pages more convenient. FlexWiki considers a newline as the
start of a new paragraph, so the ftplugin sets 'tw'=0 (unlimited line length),
'wrap' (wrap long lines instead of using horizontal scrolling), 'linebreak'
(to wrap at a character in 'breakat' instead of at the last char on screen),
and so on. It also includes some keymaps that are disabled by default.
If you want to enable the keymaps that make "j" and "k" and the cursor keys
move up and down by display lines, add this to your .vimrc:
:let flexwiki_maps = 1
FORM form.vim ft-form-syntax
The coloring scheme for syntax elements in the FORM file uses the default
modes Conditional, Number, Statement, Comment, PreProc, Type, and String,
following the language specifications in 'Symbolic Manipulation with FORM' by
J.A.M. Vermaseren, CAN, Netherlands, 1991.
If you want to include your own changes to the default colors, you have to
redefine the following syntax groups:
- formConditional
- formNumber
- formStatement
- formHeaderStatement
- formComment
- formPreProc
- formDirective
- formType
- formString
Note that the form.vim syntax file implements FORM preprocessor commands and
directives per default in the same syntax group.
A predefined enhanced color mode for FORM is available to distinguish between
header statements and statements in the body of a FORM program. To activate
this mode define the following variable in your vimrc file
:let form_enhanced_color=1
The enhanced mode also takes advantage of additional color features for a dark
gvim display. Here, statements are colored LightYellow instead of Yellow, and
conditionals are LightBlue for better distinction.
Both Visual Basic and FORM use the extension ".frm". To detect which one
should be used, Vim checks for the string "VB_Name" in the first five lines of
the file. If it is found, filetype will be "vb", otherwise "form".
If the automatic detection doesn't work for you or you only edit, for
example, FORM files, use this in your startup vimrc:
:let filetype_frm = "form"
FORTH forth.vim ft-forth-syntax
Files matching "*.f" could be Fortran or Forth and those matching "*.fs" could
be F# or Forth. If the automatic detection doesn't work for you, or you don't
edit F# or Fortran at all, use this in your startup vimrc:
:let filetype_f = "forth"
:let filetype_fs = "forth"
FORTRAN fortran.vim ft-fortran-syntax
Default highlighting and dialect
Vim highlights according to Fortran 2023 (the most recent standard). This
choice should be appropriate for most users most of the time because Fortran
2023 is almost a superset of previous versions (Fortran 2018, 2008, 2003, 95,
90, 77, and 66). A few legacy constructs deleted or declared obsolescent,
respectively, in recent Fortran standards are highlighted as errors and todo
items.
The syntax script no longer supports Fortran dialects. The variable
fortran_dialect is now silently ignored. Since computers are much faster now,
the variable fortran_more_precise is no longer needed and is silently ignored.
Fortran source code form
Fortran code can be in either fixed or free source form. Note that the
syntax highlighting will not be correct if the form is incorrectly set.
When you create a new Fortran file, the syntax script assumes fixed source
form. If you always use free source form, then
:let fortran_free_source=1
in your .vimrc prior to the :syntax on command. If you always use fixed
source form, then
:let fortran_fixed_source=1
in your .vimrc prior to the :syntax on command.
If the form of the source code depends, in a non-standard way, upon the file
extension, then it is most convenient to set fortran_free_source in a ftplugin
file. For more information on ftplugin files, see ftplugin. Note that this
will work only if the "filetype plugin indent on" command precedes the "syntax
on" command in your .vimrc file.
When you edit an existing Fortran file, the syntax script will assume free
source form if the fortran_free_source variable has been set, and assumes
fixed source form if the fortran_fixed_source variable has been set. Suppose
neither of these variables have been set. In that case, the syntax script
attempts to determine which source form has been used by examining the file
extension using conventions common to the ifort, gfortran, Cray, NAG, and
PathScale compilers (.f, .for, .f77 for fixed-source, .f90, .f95, .f03, .f08
for free-source). No default is used for the .fpp and .ftn file extensions
because different compilers treat them differently. If none of this works,
then the script examines the first five columns of the first 500 lines of your
file. If no signs of free source form are detected, then the file is assumed
to be in fixed source form. The algorithm should work in the vast majority of
cases. In some cases, such as a file that begins with 500 or more full-line
comments, the script may incorrectly decide that the code is in fixed form.
If that happens, just add a non-comment statement beginning anywhere in the
first five columns of the first twenty-five lines, save (:w), and then reload
(:e!) the file.
Vendor extensions
Fixed-form Fortran requires a maximum line length of 72 characters but the
script allows a maximum line length of 80 characters as do all compilers
created in the last three decades. An even longer line length of 132
characters is allowed if you set the variable fortran_extended_line_length
with a command such as
:let fortran_extended_line_length=1
placed prior to the :syntax on command.
If you want additional highlighting of the CUDA Fortran extensions, you should
set the variable fortran_CUDA with a command such as
:let fortran_CUDA=1
placed prior to the :syntax on command.
To activate recognition of some common, non-standard, vendor-supplied
intrinsics, you should set the variable fortran_vendor_intrinsics with a
command such as
:let fortran_vendor_intrinsics=1
placed prior to the :syntax on command.
Tabs in Fortran files
Tabs are not recognized by the Fortran standards. Tabs are not a good idea in
fixed format Fortran source code which requires fixed column boundaries.
Therefore, tabs are marked as errors. Nevertheless, some programmers like
using tabs. If your Fortran files contain tabs, then you should set the
variable fortran_have_tabs in your .vimrc with a command such as
:let fortran_have_tabs=1
placed prior to the :syntax on command. Unfortunately, the use of tabs will
mean that the syntax file will not be able to detect incorrect margins.
Syntax folding of Fortran files
Vim will fold your file using foldmethod=syntax, if you set the variable
fortran_fold in your .vimrc with a command such as
:let fortran_fold=1
to instruct the syntax script to define fold regions for program units, that
is main programs starting with a program statement, subroutines, function
subprograms, modules, submodules, blocks of comment lines, and block data
units. Block, interface, associate, critical, type definition, and change team
constructs will also be folded. If you also set the variable
fortran_fold_conditionals with a command such as
:let fortran_fold_conditionals=1
then fold regions will also be defined for do loops, if blocks, select case,
select type, and select rank constructs. Note that defining fold regions can
be slow for large files.
The syntax/fortran.vim script contains embedded comments that tell you how to
comment and/or uncomment some lines to (a) activate recognition of some
non-standard, vendor-supplied intrinsics and (b) to prevent features deleted
or declared obsolescent in the 2008 standard from being highlighted as todo
items.
Limitations
Parenthesis checking does not catch too few closing parentheses. Hollerith
strings are not recognized. Some keywords may be highlighted incorrectly
because Fortran90 has no reserved words.
For further information related to Fortran, see ft-fortran-indent and
ft-fortran-plugin.
FREEBASIC freebasic.vim ft-freebasic-syntax
FreeBASIC files will be highlighted differently for each of the four available
dialects, "fb", "qb", "fblite" and "deprecated". See ft-freebasic-plugin
for how to select the correct dialect.
Highlighting is further configurable via the following variables.
Variable Highlight
disable multiline comment folding
freebasic_operators non-alpha operators
freebasic_space_errors trailing white space and spaces before a <Tab>
freebasic_type_suffixes QuickBASIC style type suffixes
FVWM CONFIGURATION FILES fvwm.vim ft-fvwm-syntax
In order for Vim to recognize Fvwm configuration files that do not match
the patterns fvwmrc or fvwm2rc , you must put additional patterns
appropriate to your system in your myfiletypes.vim file. For these
patterns, you must set the variable "b:fvwm_version" to the major version
number of Fvwm, and the 'filetype' option to fvwm.
For example, to make Vim identify all files in /etc/X11/fvwm2/
as Fvwm2 configuration files, add the following:
:au! BufNewFile,BufRead /etc/X11/fvwm2/* let b:fvwm_version = 2 |
\ set filetype=fvwm
GSP gsp.vim ft-gsp-syntax
The default coloring style for GSP pages is defined by html.vim, and
the coloring for java code (within java tags or inline between backticks)
is defined by java.vim. The following HTML groups defined in html.vim
are redefined to incorporate and highlight inline java code:
htmlString
htmlValue
htmlEndTag
htmlTag
htmlTagN
Highlighting should look fine most of the places where you'd see inline
java code, but in some special cases it may not. To add another HTML
group where you will have inline java code where it does not highlight
correctly, just copy the line you want from html.vim and add gspJava
to the contains clause.
The backticks for inline java are highlighted according to the htmlError
group to make them easier to see.
GROFF groff.vim ft-groff-syntax
The groff syntax file is a wrapper for nroff.vim, see the notes
under that heading for examples of use and configuration. The purpose
of this wrapper is to set up groff syntax extensions by setting the
filetype from a modeline or in a personal filetype definitions file
(see filetype.txt).
HASKELL haskell.vim lhaskell.vim ft-haskell-syntax
The Haskell syntax files support plain Haskell code as well as literate
Haskell code, the latter in both Bird style and TeX style. The Haskell
syntax highlighting will also highlight C preprocessor directives.
If you want to highlight delimiter characters (useful if you have a
light-coloured background), add to your .vimrc:
:let hs_highlight_delimiters = 1
To treat True and False as keywords as opposed to ordinary identifiers,
add:
:let hs_highlight_boolean = 1
To also treat the names of primitive types as keywords:
:let hs_highlight_types = 1
And to treat the names of even more relatively common types as keywords:
:let hs_highlight_more_types = 1
If you want to highlight the names of debugging functions, put in
your .vimrc:
:let hs_highlight_debug = 1
The Haskell syntax highlighting also highlights C preprocessor
directives, and flags lines that start with # but are not valid
directives as erroneous. This interferes with Haskell's syntax for
operators, as they may start with #. If you want to highlight those
as operators as opposed to errors, put in your .vimrc:
:let hs_allow_hash_operator = 1
The syntax highlighting for literate Haskell code will try to
automatically guess whether your literate Haskell code contains
TeX markup or not, and correspondingly highlight TeX constructs
or nothing at all. You can override this globally by putting
in your .vimrc
:let lhs_markup = none
for no highlighting at all, or
:let lhs_markup = tex
to force the highlighting to always try to highlight TeX markup.
For more flexibility, you may also use buffer local versions of
this variable, so e.g.
:let b:lhs_markup = tex
will force TeX highlighting for a particular buffer. It has to be
set before turning syntax highlighting on for the buffer or
loading a file.
HTML html.vim ft-html-syntax
The coloring scheme for tags in the HTML file works as follows.
The <> of opening tags are colored differently than the </> of a closing tag.
This is on purpose! For opening tags the 'Function' color is used, while for
closing tags the 'Identifier' color is used (See syntax.vim to check how those
are defined for you)
Known tag names are colored the same way as statements in C. Unknown tag
names are colored with the same color as the <> or </> respectively which
makes it easy to spot errors
Note that the same is true for argument (or attribute) names. Known attribute
names are colored differently than unknown ones.
Some HTML tags are used to change the rendering of text. The following tags
are recognized by the html.vim syntax coloring file and change the way normal
text is shown: <B> <I> <U> <EM> <STRONG> (<EM> is used as an alias for <I>,
while <STRONG> as an alias for <B>), <H1> - <H6>, <HEAD>, <TITLE> and <A>, but
only if used as a link (that is, it must include a href as in
<A href="somefile.html">).
If you want to change how such text is rendered, you must redefine the
following syntax groups:
- htmlBold
- htmlBoldUnderline
- htmlBoldUnderlineItalic
- htmlUnderline
- htmlUnderlineItalic
- htmlItalic
- htmlTitle for titles
- htmlH1 - htmlH6 for headings
To make this redefinition work you must redefine them all with the exception
of the last two (htmlTitle and htmlH[1-6], which are optional) and define the
following variable in your vimrc (this is due to the order in which the files
are read during initialization)
:let html_my_rendering=1
If you'd like to see an example download mysyntax.vim at
http://www.fleiner.com/vim/download.html
You can also disable this rendering by adding the following line to your
vimrc file:
:let html_no_rendering=1
By default Vim synchronises the syntax to 250 lines before the first displayed
line. This can be configured using:
:let html_minlines = 500
HTML comments are rather special (see an HTML reference document for the
details), and the syntax coloring scheme will highlight all errors.
However, if you prefer to use the wrong style (starts with <!-- and
ends with -->) you can define
:let html_wrong_comments=1
JavaScript and Visual Basic embedded inside HTML documents are highlighted as
'Special' with statements, comments, strings and so on colored as in standard
programming languages. Note that only JavaScript and Visual Basic are
currently supported, no other scripting language has been added yet.
Embedded and inlined cascading style sheets (CSS) are highlighted too.
There are several html preprocessor languages out there. html.vim has been
written such that it should be trivial to include it. To do so add the
following two lines to the syntax coloring file for that language
(the example comes from the asp.vim file):
runtime! syntax/html.vim
syn cluster htmlPreproc add=asp
Now you just need to make sure that you add all regions that contain
the preprocessor language to the cluster htmlPreproc.
html-folding
The HTML syntax file provides syntax folding (see :syn-fold) between start
and end tags. This can be turned on by
:let g:html_syntax_folding = 1
:set foldmethod=syntax
Note: Syntax folding might slow down syntax highlighting significantly,
especially for large files.
HTML/OS (BY AESTIVA) htmlos.vim ft-htmlos-syntax
The coloring scheme for HTML/OS works as follows:
Functions and variable names are the same color by default, because VIM
doesn't specify different colors for Functions and Identifiers. To change
this (which is recommended if you want function names to be recognizable in a
different color) you need to add the following line to either your ~/.vimrc:
:hi Function term=underline cterm=bold ctermfg=LightGray
Of course, the ctermfg can be a different color if you choose.
Another issues that HTML/OS runs into is that there is no special filetype to
signify that it is a file with HTML/OS coding. You can change this by opening
a file and turning on HTML/OS syntax by doing the following:
:set syntax=htmlos
Lastly, it should be noted that the opening and closing characters to begin a
block of HTML/OS code can either be << or [[ and >> or ]], respectively.
IA64 ia64.vim intel-itanium ft-ia64-syntax
Highlighting for the Intel Itanium 64 assembly language. See asm.vim for
how to recognize this filetype.
To have *.inc files be recognized as IA64, add this to your .vimrc file:
:let g:filetype_inc = "ia64"
INFORM inform.vim ft-inform-syntax
Inform highlighting includes symbols provided by the Inform Library, as
most programs make extensive use of it. If do not wish Library symbols
to be highlighted add this to your vim startup:
:let inform_highlight_simple=1
By default it is assumed that Inform programs are Z-machine targeted,
and highlights Z-machine assembly language symbols appropriately. If
you intend your program to be targeted to a Glulx/Glk environment you
need to add this to your startup sequence:
:let inform_highlight_glulx=1
This will highlight Glulx opcodes instead, and also adds glk() to the
set of highlighted system functions.
The Inform compiler will flag certain obsolete keywords as errors when
it encounters them. These keywords are normally highlighted as errors
by Vim. To prevent such error highlighting, you must add this to your
startup sequence:
:let inform_suppress_obsolete=1
By default, the language features highlighted conform to Compiler
version 6.30 and Library version 6.11. If you are using an older
Inform development environment, you may with to add this to your
startup sequence:
:let inform_highlight_old=1
IDL idl.vim idl-syntax
IDL (Interface Definition Language) files are used to define RPC calls. In
Microsoft land, this is also used for defining COM interfaces and calls.
IDL's structure is simple enough to permit a full grammar based approach to
rather than using a few heuristics. The result is large and somewhat
repetitive but seems to work.
There are some Microsoft extensions to idl files that are here. Some of them
are disabled by defining idl_no_ms_extensions.
The more complex of the extensions are disabled by defining idl_no_extensions.
Variable Effect
idl_no_ms_extensions Disable some of the Microsoft specific
extensions
idl_no_extensions Disable complex extensions
idlsyntax_showerror Show IDL errors (can be rather intrusive, but
quite helpful)
idlsyntax_showerror_soft Use softer colours by default for errors
JAVA java.vim ft-java-syntax
The java.vim syntax highlighting file offers several options.
In Java 1.0.2, it was never possible to have braces inside parens, so this was
flagged as an error. Since Java 1.1, this is possible (with anonymous
classes); and, therefore, is no longer marked as an error. If you prefer the
old way, put the following line into your Vim startup file:
:let g:java_mark_braces_in_parens_as_errors = 1
All (exported) public types declared in java.lang are always automatically
imported and available as simple names. To highlight them, use:
:let g:java_highlight_java_lang_ids = 1
You can also highlight types of most standard Java packages if you download
the javaid.vim script at http://www.fleiner.com/vim/download.html. If you
prefer to only highlight types of a certain package, say java.io, use the
following:
:let g:java_highlight_java_io = 1
Check the javaid.vim file for a list of all the packages that are supported.
Headers of indented function declarations can be highlighted (along with parts
of lambda expressions and method reference expressions), but it depends on how
you write Java code. Two formats are recognized:
1) If you write function declarations that are consistently indented by either
a tab, or a space . . . or eight space character(s), you may want to set one
of
:let g:java_highlight_functions = "indent"
:let g:java_highlight_functions = "indent1"
:let g:java_highlight_functions = "indent2"
:let g:java_highlight_functions = "indent3"
:let g:java_highlight_functions = "indent4"
:let g:java_highlight_functions = "indent5"
:let g:java_highlight_functions = "indent6"
:let g:java_highlight_functions = "indent7"
:let g:java_highlight_functions = "indent8"
Note that in terms of 'shiftwidth', this is the leftmost step of indentation.
2) However, if you follow the Java guidelines about how functions and types
are supposed to be named (with respect to upper- and lowercase) and there is
any amount of indentation, you may want to set
:let g:java_highlight_functions = "style"
In addition, you can combine any value of "g:java_highlight_functions" with
:let g:java_highlight_signature = 1
to have the name of a function with its parameter list parens distinctly
highlighted from its type parameters, return type, and formal parameters; and
to have the parameter list parens of a lambda expression with its arrow
distinctly highlighted from its formal parameters or identifiers.
If neither setting does work for you, but you would still want headers of
function declarations to be highlighted, modify the current syntax definitions
or compose new ones.
Higher-order function types can be hard to parse by eye, so uniformly toning
down some of their components may be of value. Provided that such type names
conform to the Java naming guidelines, you may arrange it with
:let g:java_highlight_generics = 1
In Java 1.1, the functions System.out.println() and System.err.println()
should only be used for debugging. Consider adding the following definition
in your startup file:
:let g:java_highlight_debug = 1
to have the bulk of those statements colored as
*Debug debugging statements,
and to make some of their own items further grouped and linked:
*Special as DebugSpecial,
*String as DebugString,
*Boolean as DebugBoolean,
*Type as DebugType,
which are used for special characters appearing in strings, strings proper,
boolean literals, and special instance references (`super`, this, null),
respectively.
Javadoc is a program that takes special comments out of Java program files and
creates HTML pages. The standard configuration will highlight this HTML code
similarly to HTML files (see html.vim). You can even add JavaScript and CSS
inside this code (see below). The HTML rendering and the Markdown rendering
diverge as follows:
1. The first sentence (all characters up to the first period ., which is
followed by a whitespace character or a line terminator, or up to the
first block tag, e.g. @param, @return) is colored as
*SpecialComment special comments.
2. The text is colored as
*Comment comments.
3. HTML comments are colored as
*Special special symbols.
4. The standard Javadoc tags (`@code`, @see, etc.) are colored as
*Special special symbols
and some of their arguments are colored as
*Function function names.
To turn this feature off for both HTML and Markdown, add the following line to
your startup file:
:let g:java_ignore_javadoc = 1
Alternatively, only suppress HTML comments or Markdown comments:
:let g:java_ignore_html = 1
:let g:java_ignore_markdown = 1
See ft-java-plugin for additional support available for Markdown comments.
If you use the special Javadoc comment highlighting described above, you can
also turn on special highlighting for JavaScript, Visual Basic scripts, and
embedded CSS (stylesheets). This only makes sense if any of these languages
actually appear in Javadoc comments. The variables to use are
:let g:java_javascript = 1
:let g:java_css = 1
:let g:java_vb = 1
Note that these three variables are maintained in the HTML syntax file.
Numbers and strings can be recognized in non-Javadoc comments with
:let g:java_comment_strings = 1
When 'foldmethod' is set to "syntax", blocks of code and multi-line comments
will be folded. No text is usually written in the first line of a multi-line
comment, making folded contents of Javadoc comments less informative with the
default 'foldtext' value; you may opt for showing the contents of a second
line for any comments written in this way, and showing the contents of a first
line otherwise, with
:let g:java_foldtext_show_first_or_second_line = 1
Trailing whitespace characters or a run of space characters before a tab
character can be marked as an error with
:let g:java_space_errors = 1
but either kind of an error can be suppressed by also defining one of
:let g:java_no_trail_space_error = 1
:let g:java_no_tab_space_error = 1
In order to highlight nested parens with different colors, define colors for
javaParen, javaParen1, and javaParen2. For example,
:hi link javaParen Comment
or
:hi javaParen ctermfg=blue guifg=#0000ff
Certain modifiers are incompatible with each other, e.g. abstract and
final:
:syn list javaConceptKind
and can be differently highlighted as a group than other modifiers with
:hi link javaConceptKind NonText
If you notice highlighting errors while scrolling backwards, which are fixed
when redrawing with CTRL-L, try setting the "g:java_minlines" variable to
a larger number:
:let g:java_minlines = 50
This will make the syntax synchronization start 50 lines before the first
displayed line. The default value is 10. The disadvantage of using a larger
number is that redrawing can become slow.
Significant changes to the Java platform are gradually introduced in the form
of JDK Enhancement Proposals (JEPs) that can be implemented for a release and
offered as its preview features. It may take several JEPs and a few release
cycles for such a feature to become either integrated into the platform or
withdrawn from this effort. To cater for early adopters, there is optional
support in Vim for syntax related preview features that are implemented. You
can request it by specifying a list of preview feature numbers as follows:
:let g:java_syntax_previews = [455, 476]
The supported JEP numbers are to be drawn from this table:
430: String Templates [JDK 21]
455: Primitive types in Patterns, instanceof, and switch
476: Module Import Declarations
Note that as soon as the particular preview feature will have been integrated
into the Java platform, its entry will be removed from the table and related
optionality will be discontinued.
JSON json.vim ft-json-syntax g:vim_json_conceal
g:vim_json_warnings
The json syntax file provides syntax highlighting with conceal support by
default. To disable concealment:
let g:vim_json_conceal = 0
To disable syntax highlighting of errors:
let g:vim_json_warnings = 0
JQ jq.vim jq_quote_highlight ft-jq-syntax
To disable numbers having their own color add the following to your vimrc:
hi link jqNumber Normal
If you want quotes to have different highlighting than strings
let g:jq_quote_highlight = 1
LACE lace.vim ft-lace-syntax
Lace (Language for Assembly of Classes in Eiffel) is case insensitive, but the
style guide lines are not. If you prefer case insensitive highlighting, just
define the vim variable 'lace_case_insensitive' in your startup file:
:let lace_case_insensitive=1
LF (LFRC) lf.vim ft-lf-syntax g:lf_shell_syntax
b:lf_shell_syntax
For the lf file manager configuration files (lfrc) the shell commands syntax
highlighting can be changed globally and per buffer by setting a different
'include' command search pattern using these variables:
let g:lf_shell_syntax = "syntax/dosbatch.vim"
let b:lf_shell_syntax = "syntax/zsh.vim"
These variables are unset by default.
The default 'include' command search pattern is 'syntax/sh.vim'.
LEX lex.vim ft-lex-syntax
Lex uses brute-force synchronizing as the "^%%$" section delimiter
gives no clue as to what section follows. Consequently, the value for
:syn sync minlines=300
may be changed by the user if s/he is experiencing synchronization
difficulties (such as may happen with large lex files).
LIFELINES lifelines.vim ft-lifelines-syntax
To highlight deprecated functions as errors, add in your .vimrc:
:let g:lifelines_deprecated = 1
LISP lisp.vim ft-lisp-syntax
The lisp syntax highlighting provides two options:
g:lisp_instring : If it exists, then "(...)" strings are highlighted
as if the contents of the string were lisp.
Useful for AutoLisp.
g:lisp_rainbow : If it exists and is nonzero, then differing levels
of parenthesization will receive different
highlighting.
The g:lisp_rainbow option provides 10 levels of individual colorization for
the parentheses and backquoted parentheses. Because of the quantity of
colorization levels, unlike non-rainbow highlighting, the rainbow mode
specifies its highlighting using ctermfg and guifg, thereby bypassing the
usual color scheme control using standard highlighting groups. The actual
highlighting used depends on the dark/bright setting (see 'bg').
LITE lite.vim ft-lite-syntax
There are two options for the lite syntax highlighting.
If you like SQL syntax highlighting inside Strings, use this:
:let lite_sql_query = 1
For syncing, minlines defaults to 100. If you prefer another value, you can
set "lite_minlines" to the value you desire. Example:
:let lite_minlines = 200
LPC lpc.vim ft-lpc-syntax
LPC stands for a simple, memory-efficient language: Lars Pensjö C. The
file name of LPC is usually *.c. Recognizing these files as LPC would bother
users writing only C programs. If you want to use LPC syntax in Vim, you
should set a variable in your .vimrc file:
:let lpc_syntax_for_c = 1
If it doesn't work properly for some particular C or LPC files, use a
modeline. For a LPC file:
// vim:set ft=lpc:
For a C file that is recognized as LPC:
// vim:set ft=c:
If you don't want to set the variable, use the modeline in EVERY LPC file.
There are several implementations for LPC, we intend to support most widely
used ones. Here the default LPC syntax is for MudOS series, for MudOS v22
and before, you should turn off the sensible modifiers, and this will also
assert the new efuns after v22 to be invalid, don't set this variable when
you are using the latest version of MudOS:
:let lpc_pre_v22 = 1
For LpMud 3.2 series of LPC:
:let lpc_compat_32 = 1
For LPC4 series of LPC:
:let lpc_use_lpc4_syntax = 1
For uLPC series of LPC:
uLPC has been developed to Pike, so you should use Pike syntax
instead, and the name of your source file should be *.pike
LUA lua.vim ft-lua-syntax
The Lua syntax file can be used for versions 4.0, 5.0, 5.1 and 5.2 (5.2 is
the default). You can select one of these versions using the global variables
lua_version and lua_subversion. For example, to activate Lua
5.1 syntax highlighting, set the variables like this:
:let lua_version = 5
:let lua_subversion = 1
MAIL mail.vim ft-mail.vim
Vim highlights all the standard elements of an email (headers, signatures,
quoted text and URLs / email addresses). In keeping with standard conventions,
signatures begin in a line containing only "--" followed optionally by
whitespaces and end with a newline.
Vim treats lines beginning with ']', '}', '|', '>' or a word followed by '>'
as quoted text. However Vim highlights headers and signatures in quoted text
only if the text is quoted with '>' (optionally followed by one space).
By default mail.vim synchronises syntax to 100 lines before the first
displayed line. If you have a slow machine, and generally deal with emails
with short headers, you can change this to a smaller value:
:let mail_minlines = 30
MAKE make.vim ft-make-syntax
In makefiles, commands are usually highlighted to make it easy for you to spot
errors. However, this may be too much coloring for you. You can turn this
feature off by using:
:let make_no_commands = 1
Comments are also highlighted by default. You can turn this off by using:
:let make_no_comments = 1
Microsoft Makefile handles variable expansion and comments differently
(backslashes are not used for escape). If you see any wrong highlights
because of this, you can try this:
:let make_microsoft = 1
MAPLE maple.vim ft-maple-syntax
Maple V, by Waterloo Maple Inc, supports symbolic algebra. The language
supports many packages of functions which are selectively loaded by the user.
The standard set of packages' functions as supplied in Maple V release 4 may be
highlighted at the user's discretion. Users may place in their .vimrc file:
:let mvpkg_all= 1
to get all package functions highlighted, or users may select any subset by
choosing a variable/package from the table below and setting that variable to
1, also in their .vimrc file (prior to sourcing
$VIMRUNTIME/syntax/syntax.vim).
Table of Maple V Package Function Selectors
mv_DEtools mv_genfunc mv_networks mv_process
mv_Galois mv_geometry mv_numapprox mv_simplex
mv_GaussInt mv_grobner mv_numtheory mv_stats
mv_LREtools mv_group mv_orthopoly mv_student
mv_combinat mv_inttrans mv_padic mv_sumtools
mv_combstruct mv_liesymm mv_plots mv_tensor
mv_difforms mv_linalg mv_plottools mv_totorder
mv_finance mv_logic mv_powseries
MARKDOWN ft-markdown-syntax g:markdown_minlines
g:markdown_fenced_languages g:markdown_syntax_conceal
If you have long regions there might be wrong highlighting. At the cost of
slowing down displaying, you can have the engine look further back to sync on
the start of a region, for example 500 lines (default is 50):
:let g:markdown_minlines = 500
If you want to enable fenced code block syntax highlighting in your markdown
documents you can enable like this:
:let g:markdown_fenced_languages = ['html', 'python', 'bash=sh']
To disable markdown syntax concealing add the following to your vimrc:
:let g:markdown_syntax_conceal = 0
MATHEMATICA mma.vim ft-mma-syntax ft-mathematica-syntax
Empty *.m files will automatically be presumed to be Matlab files unless you
have the following in your .vimrc:
let filetype_m = "mma"
MEDIAWIKI ft-mediawiki-syntax
By default, syntax highlighting includes basic HTML tags like style and
headers html.vim. For strict Mediawiki syntax highlighting:
let g:html_no_rendering = 1
If HTML highlighting is desired, terminal-based text formatting such as bold
and italic is possible by:
let g:html_style_rendering = 1
MODULA2 modula2.vim ft-modula2-syntax
Vim will recognise comments with dialect tags to automatically select a given
dialect.
The syntax for a dialect tag comment is:
taggedComment :=
'(*!' dialectTag '*)'
;
dialectTag :=
m2pim | m2iso | m2r10
;
reserved words
m2pim = 'm2pim', m2iso = 'm2iso', m2r10 = 'm2r10'
A dialect tag comment is recognised by Vim if it occurs within the first 200
lines of the source file. Only the very first such comment is recognised, any
additional dialect tag comments are ignored.
Example:
DEFINITION MODULE FooLib; (*!m2pim*)
...
Variable g:modula2_default_dialect sets the default Modula-2 dialect when the
dialect cannot be determined from the contents of the Modula-2 file: if
defined and set to 'm2pim', the default dialect is PIM.
Example:
let g:modula2_default_dialect = 'm2pim'
Highlighting is further configurable for each dialect via the following
variables.
Variable Highlight
modula2_iso_allow_lowline allow low line in identifiers
modula2_iso_disallow_octals disallow octal integer literals
modula2_iso_disallow_synonyms disallow "@", "&" and "~" synonyms
modula2_pim_allow_lowline allow low line in identifiers
modula2_pim_disallow_octals disallow octal integer literals
modula2_pim_disallow_synonyms disallow "&" and "~" synonyms
modula2_r10_allow_lowline allow low line in identifiers
MOO moo.vim ft-moo-syntax
If you use C-style comments inside expressions and find it mangles your
highlighting, you may want to use extended (slow!) matches for C-style
comments:
:let moo_extended_cstyle_comments = 1
To disable highlighting of pronoun substitution patterns inside strings:
:let moo_no_pronoun_sub = 1
To disable highlighting of the regular expression operator '%|', and matching
'%(' and '%)' inside strings:
:let moo_no_regexp = 1
Unmatched double quotes can be recognized and highlighted as errors:
:let moo_unmatched_quotes = 1
To highlight builtin properties (.name, .location, .programmer etc.):
:let moo_builtin_properties = 1
Unknown builtin functions can be recognized and highlighted as errors. If you
use this option, add your own extensions to the mooKnownBuiltinFunction group.
To enable this option:
:let moo_unknown_builtin_functions = 1
An example of adding sprintf() to the list of known builtin functions:
:syn keyword mooKnownBuiltinFunction sprintf contained
MSQL msql.vim ft-msql-syntax
There are two options for the msql syntax highlighting.
If you like SQL syntax highlighting inside Strings, use this:
:let msql_sql_query = 1
For syncing, minlines defaults to 100. If you prefer another value, you can
set "msql_minlines" to the value you desire. Example:
:let msql_minlines = 200
NEOMUTT neomutt.vim ft-neomuttrc-syntax
ft-neomuttlog-syntax
To disable the default NeoMutt log colors:
:let g:neolog_disable_default_colors = 1
N1QL n1ql.vim ft-n1ql-syntax
N1QL is a SQL-like declarative language for manipulating JSON documents in
Couchbase Server databases.
Vim syntax highlights N1QL statements, keywords, operators, types, comments,
and special values. Vim ignores syntactical elements specific to SQL or its
many dialects, like COLUMN or CHAR, that don't exist in N1QL.
NCF ncf.vim ft-ncf-syntax
There is one option for NCF syntax highlighting.
If you want to have unrecognized (by ncf.vim) statements highlighted as
errors, use this:
:let ncf_highlight_unknowns = 1
If you don't want to highlight these errors, leave it unset.
NROFF nroff.vim ft-nroff-syntax
The nroff syntax file works with AT&T n/troff out of the box. You need to
activate the GNU groff extra features included in the syntax file before you
can use them.
For example, Linux and BSD distributions use groff as their default text
processing package. In order to activate the extra syntax highlighting
features for groff, arrange for files to be recognized as groff (see
ft-groff-syntax) or add the following option to your start-up files:
:let nroff_is_groff = 1
Groff is different from the old AT&T n/troff that you may still find in
Solaris. Groff macro and request names can be longer than 2 characters and
there are extensions to the language primitives. For example, in AT&T troff
you access the year as a 2-digit number with the request \(yr. In groff you
can use the same request, recognized for compatibility, or you can use groff's
native syntax, \[yr]. Furthermore, you can use a 4-digit year directly:
\[year]. Macro requests can be longer than 2 characters, for example, GNU mm
accepts the requests ".VERBON" and ".VERBOFF" for creating verbatim
environments.
In order to obtain the best formatted output g/troff can give you, you should
follow a few simple rules about spacing and punctuation.
1. Do not leave empty spaces at the end of lines.
2. Leave one space and one space only after an end-of-sentence period,
exclamation mark, etc.
3. For reasons stated below, it is best to follow all period marks with a
carriage return.
The reason behind these unusual tips is that g/n/troff have a line breaking
algorithm that can be easily upset if you don't follow the rules given above.
Unlike TeX, troff fills text line-by-line, not paragraph-by-paragraph and,
furthermore, it does not have a concept of glue or stretch, all horizontal and
vertical space input will be output as is.
Therefore, you should be careful about not using more space between sentences
than you intend to have in your final document. For this reason, the common
practice is to insert a carriage return immediately after all punctuation
marks. If you want to have "even" text in your final processed output, you
need to maintain regular spacing in the input text. To mark both trailing
spaces and two or more spaces after a punctuation as an error, use:
:let nroff_space_errors = 1
Another technique to detect extra spacing and other errors that will interfere
with the correct typesetting of your file, is to define an eye-catching
highlighting definition for the syntax groups "nroffDefinition" and
"nroffDefSpecial" in your configuration files. For example:
hi def nroffDefinition term=italic cterm=italic gui=reverse
hi def nroffDefSpecial term=italic,bold cterm=italic,bold
\ gui=reverse,bold
If you want to navigate preprocessor entries in your source file as easily as
with section markers, you can activate the following option in your .vimrc
file:
let b:preprocs_as_sections = 1
As well, the syntax file adds an extra paragraph marker for the extended
paragraph macro (.XP) in the ms package.
Finally, there is a groff.vim syntax file that can be used for enabling
groff syntax highlighting either on a file basis or globally by default.
OCAML ocaml.vim ft-ocaml-syntax
The OCaml syntax file handles files having the following prefixes: .ml,
.mli, .mll and .mly. By setting the following variable
:let ocaml_revised = 1
you can switch from standard OCaml-syntax to revised syntax as supported
by the camlp4 preprocessor. Setting the variable
:let ocaml_noend_error = 1
prevents highlighting of "end" as error, which is useful when sources
contain very long structures that Vim does not synchronize anymore.
PANDOC ft-pandoc-syntax
By default, markdown files will be detected as filetype "markdown".
Alternatively, you may want them to be detected as filetype "pandoc" instead.
To do so, set the g:filetype_md var:
:let g:filetype_md = 'pandoc'
The pandoc syntax plugin uses conceal for pretty highlighting. Default is 1
:let g:pandoc#syntax#conceal#use = 1
To specify elements that should not be concealed, set the following variable:
:let g:pandoc#syntax#conceal#blacklist = []
This is a list of the rules which can be used here:
- titleblock
- image
- block
- subscript
- superscript
- strikeout
- atx
- codeblock_start
- codeblock_delim
- footnote
- definition
- list
- newline
- dashes
- ellipses
- quotes
- inlinecode
- inlinemath
You can customize the way concealing works. For example, if you prefer to mark
footnotes with the * symbol:
:let g:pandoc#syntax#conceal#cchar_overrides = {"footnote" : "*"}
To conceal the urls in links, use:
:let g:pandoc#syntax#conceal#urls = 1
Prevent highlighting specific codeblock types so that they remain Normal.
Codeblock types include "definition" for codeblocks inside definition blocks
and "delimited" for delimited codeblocks. Default = []
:let g:pandoc#syntax#codeblocks#ignore = ['definition']
Use embedded highlighting for delimited codeblocks where a language is
specified. Default = 1
:let g:pandoc#syntax#codeblocks#embeds#use = 1
For specify what languages and using what syntax files to highlight embeds.
This is a list of language names. When the language pandoc and vim use don't
match, you can use the "PANDOC=VIM" syntax. For example:
:let g:pandoc#syntax#codeblocks#embeds#langs = ["ruby", "bash=sh"]
To use italics and strong in emphases. Default = 1
:let g:pandoc#syntax#style#emphases = 1
"0" will add "block" to g:pandoc#syntax#conceal#blacklist, because otherwise
you couldn't tell where the styles are applied.
To add underline subscript, superscript and strikeout text styles. Default = 1
:let g:pandoc#syntax#style#underline_special = 1
Detect and highlight definition lists. Disabling this can improve performance.
Default = 1 (i.e., enabled by default)
:let g:pandoc#syntax#style#use_definition_lists = 1
The pandoc syntax script also comes with the following commands:
:PandocHighlight LANG
Enables embedded highlighting for language LANG in codeblocks. Uses the
syntax for items in g:pandoc#syntax#codeblocks#embeds#langs.
:PandocUnhighlight LANG
Disables embedded highlighting for language LANG in codeblocks.
PAPP papp.vim ft-papp-syntax
The PApp syntax file handles .papp files and, to a lesser extent, .pxml
and .pxsl files which are all a mixture of perl/xml/html/other using xml
as the top-level file format. By default everything inside phtml or pxml
sections is treated as a string with embedded preprocessor commands. If
you set the variable:
:let papp_include_html=1
in your startup file it will try to syntax-highlight html code inside phtml
sections, but this is relatively slow and much too colourful to be able to
edit sensibly. ;)
The newest version of the papp.vim syntax file can usually be found at
http://papp.plan9.de.
PASCAL pascal.vim ft-pascal-syntax
Files matching "*.p" could be Progress or Pascal and those matching "*.pp"
could be Puppet or Pascal. If the automatic detection doesn't work for you,
or you only edit Pascal files, use this in your startup vimrc:
:let filetype_p = "pascal"
:let filetype_pp = "pascal"
The Pascal syntax file has been extended to take into account some extensions
provided by Turbo Pascal, Free Pascal Compiler and GNU Pascal Compiler.
Delphi keywords are also supported. By default, Turbo Pascal 7.0 features are
enabled. If you prefer to stick with the standard Pascal keywords, add the
following line to your startup file:
:let pascal_traditional=1
To switch on Delphi specific constructions (such as one-line comments,
keywords, etc):
:let pascal_delphi=1
The option pascal_symbol_operator controls whether symbol operators such as +,
*, .., etc. are displayed using the Operator color or not. To colorize symbol
operators, add the following line to your startup file:
:let pascal_symbol_operator=1
Some functions are highlighted by default. To switch it off:
:let pascal_no_functions=1
Furthermore, there are specific variables for some compilers. Besides
pascal_delphi, there are pascal_gpc and pascal_fpc. Default extensions try to
match Turbo Pascal.
:let pascal_gpc=1
or
:let pascal_fpc=1
To ensure that strings are defined on a single line, you can define the
pascal_one_line_string variable.
:let pascal_one_line_string=1
If you dislike <Tab> chars, you can set the pascal_no_tabs variable. Tabs
will be highlighted as Error.
:let pascal_no_tabs=1
PERL perl.vim ft-perl-syntax
There are a number of possible options to the perl syntax highlighting.
Inline POD highlighting is now turned on by default. If you don't wish
to have the added complexity of highlighting POD embedded within Perl
files, you may set the 'perl_include_pod' option to 0:
:let perl_include_pod = 0
To reduce the complexity of parsing (and increase performance) you can switch
off two elements in the parsing of variable names and contents.
To handle package references in variable and function names not differently
from the rest of the name (like 'PkgName::' in '$PkgName::VarName'):
:let perl_no_scope_in_variables = 1
(In Vim 6.x it was the other way around: "perl_want_scope_in_variables"
enabled it.)
If you do not want complex things like '@{${"foo"}}' to be parsed:
:let perl_no_extended_vars = 1
(In Vim 6.x it was the other way around: "perl_extended_vars" enabled it.)
The coloring strings can be changed. By default strings and qq friends will
be highlighted like the first line. If you set the variable
perl_string_as_statement, it will be highlighted as in the second line.
"hello world!"; qq|hello world|;
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^NN^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^N (unlet perl_string_as_statement)
S^^^^^^^^^^^^SNNSSS^^^^^^^^^^^SN (let perl_string_as_statement)
(^ = perlString, S = perlStatement, N = None at all)
The syncing has 3 options. The first two switch off some triggering of
synchronization and should only be needed in case it fails to work properly.
If while scrolling all of a sudden the whole screen changes color completely
then you should try and switch off one of those. Let the developer know if
you can figure out the line that causes the mistake.
One triggers on "^\s*sub\s*" and the other on "^[$@%]" more or less.
:let perl_no_sync_on_sub
:let perl_no_sync_on_global_var
Below you can set the maximum distance VIM should look for starting points for
its attempts in syntax highlighting.
:let perl_sync_dist = 100
If you want to use folding with perl, set perl_fold:
:let perl_fold = 1
If you want to fold blocks in if statements, etc. as well set the following:
:let perl_fold_blocks = 1
Subroutines are folded by default if 'perl_fold' is set. If you do not want
this, you can set 'perl_nofold_subs':
:let perl_nofold_subs = 1
Anonymous subroutines are not folded by default; you may enable their folding
via 'perl_fold_anonymous_subs':
:let perl_fold_anonymous_subs = 1
Packages are also folded by default if 'perl_fold' is set. To disable this
behavior, set 'perl_nofold_packages':
:let perl_nofold_packages = 1
PHP3 and PHP4 php.vim php3.vim ft-php-syntax ft-php3-syntax
[Note: Previously this was called "php3", but since it now also supports php4
it has been renamed to "php"]
There are the following options for the php syntax highlighting.
If you like SQL syntax highlighting inside Strings:
let php_sql_query = 1
For highlighting the Baselib methods:
let php_baselib = 1
Enable HTML syntax highlighting inside strings:
let php_htmlInStrings = 1
Using the old colorstyle:
let php_oldStyle = 1
Enable highlighting ASP-style short tags:
let php_asp_tags = 1
Disable short tags:
let php_noShortTags = 1
For highlighting parent error ] or ):
let php_parent_error_close = 1
For skipping a php end tag, if there exists an open ( or [ without a closing
one:
let php_parent_error_open = 1
Enable folding for classes and functions:
let php_folding = 1
Selecting syncing method:
let php_sync_method = x
x = -1 to sync by search (default),
x > 0 to sync at least x lines backwards,
x = 0 to sync from start.
PLAINTEX plaintex.vim ft-plaintex-syntax
TeX is a typesetting language, and plaintex is the file type for the "plain"
variant of TeX. If you never want your *.tex files recognized as plain TeX,
see ft-tex-plugin.
This syntax file has the option
let g:plaintex_delimiters = 1
if you want to highlight brackets "[]" and braces "{}".
PPWIZARD ppwiz.vim ft-ppwiz-syntax
PPWizard is a preprocessor for HTML and OS/2 INF files
This syntax file has the options:
- ppwiz_highlight_defs : Determines highlighting mode for PPWizard's
definitions. Possible values are
ppwiz_highlight_defs = 1 : PPWizard #define statements retain the
colors of their contents (e.g. PPWizard macros and variables).
ppwiz_highlight_defs = 2 : Preprocessor #define and #evaluate
statements are shown in a single color with the exception of line
continuation symbols.
The default setting for ppwiz_highlight_defs is 1.
- ppwiz_with_html : If the value is 1 (the default), highlight literal
HTML code; if 0, treat HTML code like ordinary text.
PHTML phtml.vim ft-phtml-syntax
There are two options for the phtml syntax highlighting.
If you like SQL syntax highlighting inside Strings, use this:
:let phtml_sql_query = 1
For syncing, minlines defaults to 100. If you prefer another value, you can
set "phtml_minlines" to the value you desire. Example:
:let phtml_minlines = 200
POSTSCRIPT postscr.vim ft-postscr-syntax
There are several options when it comes to highlighting PostScript.
First which version of the PostScript language to highlight. There are
currently three defined language versions, or levels. Level 1 is the original
and base version, and includes all extensions prior to the release of level 2.
Level 2 is the most common version around, and includes its own set of
extensions prior to the release of level 3. Level 3 is currently the highest
level supported. You select which level of the PostScript language you want
highlighted by defining the postscr_level variable as follows:
:let postscr_level=2
If this variable is not defined it defaults to 2 (level 2) since this is
the most prevalent version currently.
Note: Not all PS interpreters will support all language features for a
particular language level. In particular the %!PS-Adobe-3.0 at the start of
PS files does NOT mean the PostScript present is level 3 PostScript!
If you are working with Display PostScript, you can include highlighting of
Display PS language features by defining the postscr_display variable as
follows:
:let postscr_display=1
If you are working with Ghostscript, you can include highlighting of
Ghostscript specific language features by defining the variable
postscr_ghostscript as follows:
:let postscr_ghostscript=1
PostScript is a large language, with many predefined elements. While it
useful to have all these elements highlighted, on slower machines this can
cause Vim to slow down. In an attempt to be machine friendly font names and
character encodings are not highlighted by default. Unless you are working
explicitly with either of these this should be ok. If you want them to be
highlighted you should set one or both of the following variables:
:let postscr_fonts=1
:let postscr_encodings=1
There is a stylistic option to the highlighting of and, or, and not. In
PostScript the function of these operators depends on the types of their
operands - if the operands are booleans then they are the logical operators,
if they are integers then they are binary operators. As binary and logical
operators can be highlighted differently they have to be highlighted one way
or the other. By default they are treated as logical operators. They can be
highlighted as binary operators by defining the variable
postscr_andornot_binary as follows:
:let postscr_andornot_binary=1
ptcap.vim ft-printcap-syntax
PRINTCAP + TERMCAP ft-ptcap-syntax ft-termcap-syntax
This syntax file applies to the printcap and termcap databases.
In order for Vim to recognize printcap/termcap files that do not match
the patterns *printcap*, or *termcap*, you must put additional patterns
appropriate to your system in your myfiletypefile file. For these
patterns, you must set the variable "b:ptcap_type" to either "print" or
"term", and then the 'filetype' option to ptcap.
For example, to make Vim identify all files in /etc/termcaps/ as termcap
files, add the following:
:au BufNewFile,BufRead /etc/termcaps/* let b:ptcap_type = "term" |
\ set filetype=ptcap
If you notice highlighting errors while scrolling backwards, which
are fixed when redrawing with CTRL-L, try setting the "ptcap_minlines"
internal variable to a larger number:
:let ptcap_minlines = 50
(The default is 20 lines.)
PROGRESS progress.vim ft-progress-syntax
Files matching "*.w" could be Progress or cweb. If the automatic detection
doesn't work for you, or you don't edit cweb at all, use this in your
startup vimrc:
:let filetype_w = "progress"
The same happens for "*.i", which could be assembly, and "*.p", which could be
Pascal. Use this if you don't use assembly and Pascal:
:let filetype_i = "progress"
:let filetype_p = "progress"
PYTHON python.vim ft-python-syntax
There are six options to control Python syntax highlighting.
For highlighted numbers:
:let python_no_number_highlight = 1
For highlighted builtin functions:
:let python_no_builtin_highlight = 1
For highlighted standard exceptions:
:let python_no_exception_highlight = 1
For highlighted doctests and code inside:
:let python_no_doctest_highlight = 1
or
:let python_no_doctest_code_highlight = 1
The first option implies the second one.
For highlighted trailing whitespace and mix of spaces and tabs:
:let python_space_error_highlight = 1
If you want all possible Python highlighting:
:let python_highlight_all = 1
This has the same effect as setting python_space_error_highlight and
unsetting all the other ones.
If you use Python 2 or straddling code (Python 2 and 3 compatible),
you can enforce the use of an older syntax file with support for
Python 2 and up to Python 3.5.
:let python_use_python2_syntax = 1
This option will exclude all modern Python 3.6 or higher features.
Note: Only existence of these options matters, not their value.
You can replace 1 above with anything.
QUAKE quake.vim ft-quake-syntax
The Quake syntax definition should work for most FPS (First Person Shooter)
based on one of the Quake engines. However, the command names vary a bit
between the three games (Quake, Quake 2, and Quake 3 Arena) so the syntax
definition checks for the existence of three global variables to allow users
to specify what commands are legal in their files. The three variables can
be set for the following effects:
set to highlight commands only available in Quake:
:let quake_is_quake1 = 1
set to highlight commands only available in Quake 2:
:let quake_is_quake2 = 1
set to highlight commands only available in Quake 3 Arena:
:let quake_is_quake3 = 1
Any combination of these three variables is legal, but might highlight more
commands than are actually available to you by the game.
R r.vim ft-r-syntax
The parsing of R code for syntax highlight starts 40 lines backwards, but you
can set a different value in your vimrc. Example:
let r_syntax_minlines = 60
You can also turn off syntax highlighting of ROxygen:
let r_syntax_hl_roxygen = 0
enable folding of code delimited by parentheses, square brackets and curly
braces:
let r_syntax_folding = 1
and highlight as functions all keywords followed by an opening parenthesis:
let r_syntax_fun_pattern = 1
R MARKDOWN rmd.vim ft-rmd-syntax
To disable syntax highlight of YAML header, add to your vimrc:
let rmd_syn_hl_yaml = 0
To disable syntax highlighting of citation keys:
let rmd_syn_hl_citations = 0
To highlight R code in knitr chunk headers:
let rmd_syn_hl_chunk = 1
By default, chunks of R code will be highlighted following the rules of R
language. Moreover, whenever the buffer is saved, Vim scans the buffer and
highlights other languages if they are present in new chunks. LaTeX code also
is automatically recognized and highlighted when the buffer is saved. This
behavior can be controlled with the variables rmd_dynamic_fenced_languages,
and rmd_include_latex whose valid values are:
let rmd_dynamic_fenced_languages = 0 " No autodetection of languages
let rmd_dynamic_fenced_languages = 1 " Autodetection of languages
let rmd_include_latex = 0 " Don't highlight LaTeX code
let rmd_include_latex = 1 " Autodetect LaTeX code
let rmd_include_latex = 2 " Always include LaTeX highlighting
If the value of rmd_dynamic_fenced_languages is 0, you still can set the
list of languages whose chunks of code should be properly highlighted, as in
the example:
let rmd_fenced_languages = ['r', 'python']
R RESTRUCTURED TEXT rrst.vim ft-rrst-syntax
To highlight R code in knitr chunk headers, add to your vimrc:
let rrst_syn_hl_chunk = 1
RASI rasi.vim ft-rasi-syntax
Rasi stands for Rofi Advanced Style Information. It is used by the program
rofi to style the rendering of the search window. The language is heavily
inspired by CSS stylesheet. Files with the following extensions are recognized
as rasi files: .rasi.
READLINE readline.vim ft-readline-syntax
The readline library is primarily used by the BASH shell, which adds quite a
few commands and options to the ones already available. To highlight these
items as well you can add the following to your vimrc or just type it in the
command line before loading a file with the readline syntax:
let readline_has_bash = 1
This will add highlighting for the commands that BASH (version 2.05a and
later, and part earlier) adds.
REGO rego.vim ft-rego-syntax
Rego is a query language developed by Styra. It is mostly used as a policy
language for kubernetes, but can be applied to almost anything. Files with
the following extensions are recognized as rego files: .rego.
RESTRUCTURED TEXT rst.vim ft-rst-syntax
Syntax highlighting is enabled for code blocks within the document for a
select number of file types. See $VIMRUNTIME/syntax/rst.vim for the default
syntax list.
To set a user-defined list of code block syntax highlighting:
let rst_syntax_code_list = ['vim', 'lisp', ...]
To assign multiple code block types to a single syntax, define
rst_syntax_code_list as a mapping:
let rst_syntax_code_list = {
\ 'cpp': ['cpp', 'c++'],
\ 'bash': ['bash', 'sh'],
...
\ }
To use color highlighting for emphasis text:
let rst_use_emphasis_colors = 1
To enable folding of sections:
let rst_fold_enabled = 1
Note that folding can cause performance issues on some platforms.
REXX rexx.vim ft-rexx-syntax
If you notice highlighting errors while scrolling backwards, which are fixed
when redrawing with CTRL-L, try setting the "rexx_minlines" internal variable
to a larger number:
:let rexx_minlines = 50
This will make the syntax synchronization start 50 lines before the first
displayed line. The default value is 10. The disadvantage of using a larger
number is that redrawing can become slow.
Vim tries to guess what type a ".r" file is. If it can't be detected (from
comment lines), the default is "r". To make the default rexx add this line to
your .vimrc: g:filetype_r
:let g:filetype_r = "r"
RUBY ruby.vim ft-ruby-syntax
Ruby: Operator highlighting ruby_operators
Ruby: Whitespace errors ruby_space_errors
Ruby: Folding ruby_fold ruby_foldable_groups
Ruby: Reducing expensive operations ruby_no_expensive ruby_minlines
Ruby: Spellchecking strings ruby_spellcheck_strings
ruby_operators
Ruby: Operator highlighting
Operators can be highlighted by defining "ruby_operators":
:let ruby_operators = 1
ruby_space_errors
Ruby: Whitespace errors
Whitespace errors can be highlighted by defining "ruby_space_errors":
:let ruby_space_errors = 1
This will highlight trailing whitespace and tabs preceded by a space character
as errors. This can be refined by defining "ruby_no_trail_space_error" and
"ruby_no_tab_space_error" which will ignore trailing whitespace and tabs after
spaces respectively.
ruby_fold ruby_foldable_groups
Ruby: Folding
Folding can be enabled by defining "ruby_fold":
:let ruby_fold = 1
This will set the value of 'foldmethod' to "syntax" locally to the current
buffer or window, which will enable syntax-based folding when editing Ruby
filetypes.
Default folding is rather detailed, i.e., small syntax units like "if", "do",
"%w[]" may create corresponding fold levels.
You can set "ruby_foldable_groups" to restrict which groups are foldable:
:let ruby_foldable_groups = 'if case %'
The value is a space-separated list of keywords:
keyword meaning
-------- -------------------------------------
ALL Most block syntax (default)
NONE Nothing
if "if" or "unless" block
def "def" block
class "class" block
module "module" block
do "do" block
begin "begin" block
case "case" block
for "for", "while", "until" loops
{ Curly bracket block or hash literal
[ Array literal
% Literal with "%" notation, e.g.: %w(STRING), %!STRING!
/ Regexp
string String and shell command output (surrounded by ', ", `)
: Symbol
# Multiline comment
<< Here documents
__END__ Source code after "__END__" directive
ruby_no_expensive
Ruby: Reducing expensive operations
By default, the "end" keyword is colorized according to the opening statement
of the block it closes. While useful, this feature can be expensive; if you
experience slow redrawing (or you are on a terminal with poor color support)
you may want to turn it off by defining the "ruby_no_expensive" variable:
:let ruby_no_expensive = 1
In this case the same color will be used for all control keywords.
ruby_minlines
If you do want this feature enabled, but notice highlighting errors while
scrolling backwards, which are fixed when redrawing with CTRL-L, try setting
the "ruby_minlines" variable to a value larger than 50:
:let ruby_minlines = 100
Ideally, this value should be a number of lines large enough to embrace your
largest class or module.
ruby_spellcheck_strings
Ruby: Spellchecking strings
Ruby syntax will perform spellchecking of strings if you define
"ruby_spellcheck_strings":
:let ruby_spellcheck_strings = 1
SCHEME scheme.vim ft-scheme-syntax
By default only R7RS keywords are highlighted and properly indented.
scheme.vim also supports extensions of the CHICKEN Scheme->C compiler.
Define b:is_chicken or g:is_chicken, if you need them.
SDL sdl.vim ft-sdl-syntax
The SDL highlighting probably misses a few keywords, but SDL has so many
of them it's almost impossibly to cope.
The new standard, SDL-2000, specifies that all identifiers are
case-sensitive (which was not so before), and that all keywords can be
used either completely lowercase or completely uppercase. To have the
highlighting reflect this, you can set the following variable:
:let sdl_2000=1
This also sets many new keywords. If you want to disable the old
keywords, which is probably a good idea, use:
:let SDL_no_96=1
The indentation is probably also incomplete, but right now I am very
satisfied with it for my own projects.
SED sed.vim ft-sed-syntax
To make tabs stand out from regular blanks (accomplished by using Todo
highlighting on the tabs), define "g:sed_highlight_tabs" by putting
:let g:sed_highlight_tabs = 1
in the vimrc file. (This special highlighting only applies for tabs
inside search patterns, replacement texts, addresses or text included
by an Append/Change/Insert command.) If you enable this option, it is
also a good idea to set the tab width to one character; by doing that,
you can easily count the number of tabs in a string.
GNU sed allows comments after text on the same line. BSD sed only allows
comments where "#" is the first character of the line. To enforce BSD-style
comments, i.e. mark end-of-line comments as errors, use:
:let g:sed_dialect = "bsd"
Note that there are other differences between GNU sed and BSD sed which are
not (yet) affected by this setting.
Bugs:
The transform command (y) is treated exactly like the substitute
command. This means that, as far as this syntax file is concerned,
transform accepts the same flags as substitute, which is wrong.
(Transform accepts no flags.) I tolerate this bug because the
involved commands need very complex treatment (95 patterns, one for
each plausible pattern delimiter).
SGML sgml.vim ft-sgml-syntax
The coloring scheme for tags in the SGML file works as follows.
The <> of opening tags are colored differently than the </> of a closing tag.
This is on purpose! For opening tags the 'Function' color is used, while for
closing tags the 'Type' color is used (See syntax.vim to check how those are
defined for you)
Known tag names are colored the same way as statements in C. Unknown tag
names are not colored which makes it easy to spot errors.
Note that the same is true for argument (or attribute) names. Known attribute
names are colored differently than unknown ones.
Some SGML tags are used to change the rendering of text. The following tags
are recognized by the sgml.vim syntax coloring file and change the way normal
text is shown: <varname> <emphasis> <command> <function> <literal>
<replaceable> <ulink> and <link>.
If you want to change how such text is rendered, you must redefine the
following syntax groups:
- sgmlBold
- sgmlBoldItalic
- sgmlUnderline
- sgmlItalic
- sgmlLink for links
To make this redefinition work you must redefine them all and define the
following variable in your vimrc (this is due to the order in which the files
are read during initialization)
let sgml_my_rendering=1
You can also disable this rendering by adding the following line to your
vimrc file:
let sgml_no_rendering=1
(Adapted from the html.vim help text by Claudio Fleiner <claudio@fleiner.com>)
ft-posix-syntax ft-dash-syntax
SH sh.vim ft-sh-syntax ft-bash-syntax ft-ksh-syntax
This covers syntax highlighting for the older Unix (Bourne) sh, and newer
shells such as bash, dash, posix, and the Korn shells.
Vim attempts to determine which shell type is in use by specifying that
various filenames are of specific types, e.g.:
ksh : .kshrc* *.ksh
bash: .bashrc* bashrc bash.bashrc .bash_profile* *.bash
See $VIMRUNTIME/filetype.vim for the full list of patterns. If none of these
cases pertain, then the first line of the file is examined (ex. looking for
/bin/sh /bin/ksh /bin/bash). If the first line specifies a shelltype, then
that shelltype is used. However some files (ex. .profile) are known to be
shell files but the type is not apparent. Furthermore, on many systems sh is
symbolically linked to "bash" (Linux, Windows+cygwin) or "ksh" (Posix).
One may specify a global default by instantiating one of the following
variables in your <.vimrc>:
ksh:
let g:is_kornshell = 1
posix: (using this is nearly the same as setting g:is_kornshell to 1)
let g:is_posix = 1
bash:
let g:is_bash = 1
sh: (default) Bourne shell
let g:is_sh = 1
(dash users should use posix)
If there's no "#! ..." line, and the user hasn't availed himself/herself of a
default sh.vim syntax setting as just shown, then syntax/sh.vim will assume
the Bourne shell syntax. No need to quote RFCs or market penetration
statistics in error reports, please -- just select the default version of the
sh your system uses and install the associated "let..." in your <.vimrc>.
The syntax/sh.vim file provides several levels of syntax-based folding:
let g:sh_fold_enabled= 0 (default, no syntax folding)
let g:sh_fold_enabled= 1 (enable function folding)
let g:sh_fold_enabled= 2 (enable heredoc folding)
let g:sh_fold_enabled= 4 (enable if/do/for folding)
then various syntax items (ie. HereDocuments and function bodies) become
syntax-foldable (see :syn-fold). You also may add these together
to get multiple types of folding:
let g:sh_fold_enabled= 3 (enables function and heredoc folding)
If you notice highlighting errors while scrolling backwards which are fixed
when one redraws with CTRL-L, try setting the "sh_minlines" internal variable
to a larger number. Example:
let sh_minlines = 500
This will make syntax synchronization start 500 lines before the first
displayed line. The default value is 200. The disadvantage of using a larger
number is that redrawing can become slow.
If you don't have much to synchronize on, displaying can be very slow. To
reduce this, the "sh_maxlines" internal variable can be set. Example:
let sh_maxlines = 100
The default is to use the twice sh_minlines. Set it to a smaller number to
speed up displaying. The disadvantage is that highlight errors may appear.
syntax/sh.vim tries to flag certain problems as errors; usually things like
unmatched "]", "done", "fi", etc. If you find the error handling problematic
for your purposes, you may suppress such error highlighting by putting
the following line in your .vimrc:
let g:sh_no_error= 1
sh-embed sh-awk
Sh: EMBEDDING LANGUAGES
You may wish to embed languages into sh. I'll give an example courtesy of
Lorance Stinson on how to do this with awk as an example. Put the following
file into $HOME/.vim/after/syntax/sh/awkembed.vim:
" AWK Embedding:
" ==============
" Shamelessly ripped from aspperl.vim by Aaron Hope.
if exists("b:current_syntax")
unlet b:current_syntax
endif
syn include @AWKScript syntax/awk.vim
syn region AWKScriptCode matchgroup=AWKCommand start=+[=\\]\@<!'+ skip=+\\'+ end=+'+ contains=@AWKScript contained
syn region AWKScriptEmbedded matchgroup=AWKCommand start=+\<awk\>+ skip=+\\$+ end=+[=\\]\@<!'+me=e-1 contains=@shIdList,@shExprList2 nextgroup=AWKScriptCode
syn cluster shCommandSubList add=AWKScriptEmbedded
hi def link AWKCommand Type
This code will then let the awk code in the single quotes:
awk '...awk code here...'
be highlighted using the awk highlighting syntax. Clearly this may be
extended to other languages.
SPEEDUP spup.vim ft-spup-syntax
(AspenTech plant simulator)
The Speedup syntax file has some options:
- strict_subsections : If this variable is defined, only keywords for
sections and subsections will be highlighted as statements but not
other keywords (like WITHIN in the OPERATION section).
- highlight_types : Definition of this variable causes stream types
like temperature or pressure to be highlighted as Type, not as a
plain Identifier. Included are the types that are usually found in
the DECLARE section; if you defined own types, you have to include
them in the syntax file.
- oneline_comments : This value ranges from 1 to 3 and determines the
highlighting of # style comments.
oneline_comments = 1 : Allow normal Speedup code after an even
number of #s.
oneline_comments = 2 : Show code starting with the second # as
error. This is the default setting.
oneline_comments = 3 : Show the whole line as error if it contains
more than one #.
Since especially OPERATION sections tend to become very large due to
PRESETting variables, syncing may be critical. If your computer is
fast enough, you can increase minlines and/or maxlines near the end of
the syntax file.
SQL sql.vim ft-sql-syntax
sqlinformix.vim ft-sqlinformix-syntax
sqlanywhere.vim ft-sqlanywhere-syntax
While there is an ANSI standard for SQL, most database engines add their own
custom extensions. Vim currently supports the Oracle and Informix dialects of
SQL. Vim assumes "*.sql" files are Oracle SQL by default.
Vim currently has SQL support for a variety of different vendors via syntax
scripts. You can change Vim's default from Oracle to any of the current SQL
supported types. You can also easily alter the SQL dialect being used on a
buffer by buffer basis.
For more detailed instructions see ft_sql.txt.
SQUIRREL squirrel.vim ft-squirrel-syntax
Squirrel is a high level imperative, object-oriented programming language,
designed to be a light-weight scripting language that fits in the size, memory
bandwidth, and real-time requirements of applications like video games. Files
with the following extensions are recognized as squirrel files: .nut.
TCSH tcsh.vim ft-tcsh-syntax
This covers the shell named "tcsh". It is a superset of csh. See csh.vim
for how the filetype is detected.
Tcsh does not allow \" in strings unless the "backslash_quote" shell variable
is set. If you want VIM to assume that no backslash quote constructs exist
add this line to your .vimrc:
:let tcsh_backslash_quote = 0
If you notice highlighting errors while scrolling backwards, which are fixed
when redrawing with CTRL-L, try setting the "tcsh_minlines" internal variable
to a larger number:
:let tcsh_minlines = 1000
This will make the syntax synchronization start 1000 lines before the first
displayed line. If you set "tcsh_minlines" to "fromstart", then
synchronization is done from the start of the file. The default value for
tcsh_minlines is 100. The disadvantage of using a larger number is that
redrawing can become slow.
TEX tex.vim ft-tex-syntax latex-syntax
syntax-tex syntax-latex
Tex Contents
Tex: Want Syntax Folding? tex-folding
Tex: No Spell Checking Wanted g:tex_nospell
Tex: Don't Want Spell Checking In Comments? tex-nospell
Tex: Want Spell Checking in Verbatim Zones? tex-verb
Tex: Run-on Comments or MathZones tex-runon
Tex: Slow Syntax Highlighting? tex-slow
Tex: Want To Highlight More Commands? tex-morecommands
Tex: Excessive Error Highlighting? tex-error
Tex: Need a new Math Group? tex-math
Tex: Starting a New Style? tex-style
Tex: Taking Advantage of Conceal Mode tex-conceal
Tex: Selective Conceal Mode g:tex_conceal
Tex: Controlling iskeyword g:tex_isk
Tex: Fine Subscript and Superscript Control tex-supersub
Tex: Match Check Control tex-matchcheck
tex-folding g:tex_fold_enabled
Tex: Want Syntax Folding?
As of version 28 of <syntax/tex.vim>, syntax-based folding of parts, chapters,
sections, subsections, etc are supported. Put
let g:tex_fold_enabled=1
in your <.vimrc>, and :set fdm=syntax. I suggest doing the latter via a
modeline at the end of your LaTeX file:
% vim: fdm=syntax
If your system becomes too slow, then you might wish to look into
https://vimhelp.org/vim_faq.txt.html#faq-29.7
g:tex_nospell
Tex: No Spell Checking Wanted
If you don't want spell checking anywhere in your LaTeX document, put
let g:tex_nospell=1
into your .vimrc. If you merely wish to suppress spell checking inside
comments only, see g:tex_comment_nospell.
tex-nospell
Tex: Don't Want Spell Checking In Comments?
Some folks like to include things like source code in comments and so would
prefer that spell checking be disabled in comments in LaTeX files. To do
this, put the following in your <.vimrc>:
let g:tex_comment_nospell= 1
If you want to suppress spell checking everywhere inside your LaTeX document,
see g:tex_nospell.
tex-verb g:tex_verbspell
Tex: Want Spell Checking in Verbatim Zones?
Often verbatim regions are used for things like source code; seldom does
one want source code spell-checked. However, for those of you who do
want your verbatim zones spell-checked, put the following in your <.vimrc>:
let g:tex_verbspell= 1
tex-runon tex-stopzone
Tex: Run-on Comments or MathZones
The <syntax/tex.vim> highlighting supports TeX, LaTeX, and some AmsTeX. The
highlighting supports three primary zones/regions: normal, texZone, and
texMathZone. Although considerable effort has been made to have these zones
terminate properly, zones delineated by $..$ and $$..$$ cannot be synchronized
as there's no difference between start and end patterns. Consequently, a
special "TeX comment" has been provided
%stopzone
which will forcibly terminate the highlighting of either a texZone or a
texMathZone.
tex-slow tex-sync
Tex: Slow Syntax Highlighting?
If you have a slow computer, you may wish to reduce the values for
:syn sync maxlines=200
:syn sync minlines=50
(especially the latter). If your computer is fast, you may wish to
increase them. This primarily affects synchronizing (i.e. just what group,
if any, is the text at the top of the screen supposed to be in?).
Another cause of slow highlighting is due to syntax-driven folding; see
tex-folding for a way around this.
g:tex_fast
Finally, if syntax highlighting is still too slow, you may set
:let g:tex_fast= ""
in your .vimrc. Used this way, the g:tex_fast variable causes the syntax
highlighting script to avoid defining any regions and associated
synchronization. The result will be much faster syntax highlighting; the
price: you will no longer have as much highlighting or any syntax-based
folding, and you will be missing syntax-based error checking.
You may decide that some syntax is acceptable; you may use the following table
selectively to enable just some syntax highlighting:
b : allow bold and italic syntax
c : allow texComment syntax
m : allow texMatcher syntax (ie. {...} and [...])
M : allow texMath syntax
p : allow parts, chapter, section, etc syntax
r : allow texRefZone syntax (nocite, bibliography, label, pageref, eqref)
s : allow superscript/subscript regions
S : allow texStyle syntax
v : allow verbatim syntax
V : allow texNewEnv and texNewCmd syntax
As an example, let g:tex_fast= "M" will allow math-associated highlighting
but suppress all the other region-based syntax highlighting.
(also see: g:tex_conceal and tex-supersub)
tex-morecommands tex-package
Tex: Want To Highlight More Commands?
LaTeX is a programmable language, and so there are thousands of packages full
of specialized LaTeX commands, syntax, and fonts. If you're using such a
package you'll often wish that the distributed syntax/tex.vim would support
it. However, clearly this is impractical. So please consider using the
techniques in mysyntaxfile-add to extend or modify the highlighting provided
by syntax/tex.vim. Please consider uploading any extensions that you write,
which typically would go in $HOME/after/syntax/tex/[pkgname].vim, to
http://vim.sf.net/.
I've included some support for various popular packages on my website:
http://www.drchip.org/astronaut/vim/index.html#LATEXPKGS
The syntax files there go into your .../after/syntax/tex/ directory.
tex-error g:tex_no_error
Tex: Excessive Error Highlighting?
The <tex.vim> supports lexical error checking of various sorts. Thus,
although the error checking is ofttimes very useful, it can indicate
errors where none actually are. If this proves to be a problem for you,
you may put in your <.vimrc> the following statement:
let g:tex_no_error=1
and all error checking by <syntax/tex.vim> will be suppressed.
tex-math
Tex: Need a new Math Group?
If you want to include a new math group in your LaTeX, the following
code shows you an example as to how you might do so:
call TexNewMathZone(sfx,mathzone,starform)
You'll want to provide the new math group with a unique suffix
(currently, A-L and V-Z are taken by <syntax/tex.vim> itself).
As an example, consider how eqnarray is set up by <syntax/tex.vim>:
call TexNewMathZone("D","eqnarray",1)
You'll need to change "mathzone" to the name of your new math group,
and then to the call to it in .vim/after/syntax/tex.vim.
The "starform" variable, if true, implies that your new math group
has a starred form (ie. eqnarray*).
tex-style b:tex_stylish
Tex: Starting a New Style?
One may use "\makeatletter" in *.tex files, thereby making the use of "@" in
commands available. However, since the *.tex file doesn't have one of the
following suffices: sty cls clo dtx ltx, the syntax highlighting will flag
such use of @ as an error. To solve this:
:let b:tex_stylish = 1
:set ft=tex
Putting "let g:tex_stylish=1" into your <.vimrc> will make <syntax/tex.vim>
always accept such use of @.
tex-cchar tex-cole tex-conceal
Tex: Taking Advantage of Conceal Mode
If you have 'conceallevel' set to 2 and if your encoding is utf-8, then a
number of character sequences can be translated into appropriate utf-8 glyphs,
including various accented characters, Greek characters in MathZones, and
superscripts and subscripts in MathZones. Not all characters can be made into
superscripts or subscripts; the constraint is due to what utf-8 supports.
In fact, only a few characters are supported as subscripts.
One way to use this is to have vertically split windows (see CTRL-W_v); one
with 'conceallevel' at 0 and the other at 2; and both using 'scrollbind'.
g:tex_conceal
Tex: Selective Conceal Mode
You may selectively use conceal mode by setting g:tex_conceal in your
<.vimrc>. By default, g:tex_conceal is set to "admgs" to enable concealment
for the following sets of characters:
a = accents/ligatures
b = bold and italic
d = delimiters
m = math symbols
g = Greek
s = superscripts/subscripts
By leaving one or more of these out, the associated conceal-character
substitution will not be made.
g:tex_isk g:tex_stylish
Tex: Controlling iskeyword
Normally, LaTeX keywords support 0-9, a-z, A-z, and 192-255 only. Latex
keywords don't support the underscore - except when in *.sty files. The
syntax highlighting script handles this with the following logic:
* If g:tex_stylish exists and is 1
then the file will be treated as a "sty" file, so the "_"
will be allowed as part of keywords
(regardless of g:tex_isk)
* Else if the file's suffix is sty, cls, clo, dtx, or ltx,
then the file will be treated as a "sty" file, so the "_"
will be allowed as part of keywords
(regardless of g:tex_isk)
* If g:tex_isk exists, then it will be used for the local 'iskeyword'
* Else the local 'iskeyword' will be set to 48-57,a-z,A-Z,192-255
tex-supersub g:tex_superscripts g:tex_subscripts
Tex: Fine Subscript and Superscript Control
See tex-conceal for how to enable concealed character replacement.
See g:tex_conceal for selectively concealing accents, bold/italic,
math, Greek, and superscripts/subscripts.
One may exert fine control over which superscripts and subscripts one
wants syntax-based concealment for (see :syn-cchar). Since not all
fonts support all characters, one may override the
concealed-replacement lists; by default these lists are given by:
let g:tex_superscripts= "[0-9a-zA-W.,:;+-<>/()=]"
let g:tex_subscripts= "[0-9aehijklmnoprstuvx,+-/().]"
For example, I use Luxi Mono Bold; it doesn't support subscript
characters for "hklmnpst", so I put
let g:tex_subscripts= "[0-9aeijoruvx,+-/().]"
in ~/.vim/ftplugin/tex/tex.vim in order to avoid having inscrutable
utf-8 glyphs appear.
tex-matchcheck g:tex_matchcheck
Tex: Match Check Control
Sometimes one actually wants mismatched parentheses, square braces,
and or curly braces; for example, \text{(1,10]} is a range from but
not including 1 to and including 10. This wish, of course, conflicts
with the desire to provide delimiter mismatch detection. To
accommodate these conflicting goals, syntax/tex.vim provides
g:tex_matchcheck = '[({[]'
which is shown along with its default setting. So, if one doesn't
want [] and () to be checked for mismatches, try using
let g:tex_matchcheck= '[{}]'
If you don't want matching to occur inside bold and italicized
regions,
let g:tex_excludematcher= 1
will prevent the texMatcher group from being included in those regions.
TF tf.vim ft-tf-syntax
There is one option for the tf syntax highlighting.
For syncing, minlines defaults to 100. If you prefer another value, you can
set "tf_minlines" to the value you desire. Example:
:let tf_minlines = your choice
TYPESCRIPT typescript.vim ft-typescript-syntax
typescriptreact.vim ft-typescriptreact-syntax
There is one option to control the TypeScript syntax highlighting.
g:typescript_host_keyword
When this variable is set to 1, host-specific APIs such as addEventListener
are highlighted. To disable set it to zero in your .vimrc:
let g:typescript_host_keyword = 0
The default value is 1.
TYPST ft-typst-syntax
g:typst_embedded_languages
Typst files can embed syntax highlighting for other languages by setting the
g:typst_embedded_languages variable. This variable is a list of language
names whose syntax definitions will be included in Typst files. Example:
let g:typst_embedded_languages = ['python', 'r']
VIM vim.vim ft-vim-syntax
g:vimsyn_minlines g:vimsyn_maxlines
There is a trade-off between more accurate syntax highlighting versus screen
updating speed. To improve accuracy, you may wish to increase the
g:vimsyn_minlines variable. The g:vimsyn_maxlines variable may be used to
improve screen updating rates (see :syn-sync for more on this).
g:vimsyn_minlines : used to set synchronization minlines
g:vimsyn_maxlines : used to set synchronization maxlines
(g:vim_minlines and g:vim_maxlines are deprecated variants of
these two options)
g:vimsyn_embed
The g:vimsyn_embed option allows users to select what, if any, types of
embedded script highlighting they wish to have.
g:vimsyn_embed == 0 : don't support any embedded scripts
g:vimsyn_embed =~ 'l' : support embedded Lua
g:vimsyn_embed =~ 'm' : support embedded MzScheme
g:vimsyn_embed =~ 'p' : support embedded Perl
g:vimsyn_embed =~ 'P' : support embedded Python
g:vimsyn_embed =~ 'r' : support embedded Ruby
g:vimsyn_embed =~ 't' : support embedded Tcl
By default, g:vimsyn_embed is a string supporting interpreters that your vim
itself supports. Concatenate the indicated characters to support multiple
types of embedded interpreters (e.g., g:vimsyn_embed = "mp" supports embedded
mzscheme and embedded perl).
g:vimsyn_folding
Some folding is now supported with when 'foldmethod' is set to "syntax":
g:vimsyn_folding == 0 or doesn't exist: no syntax-based folding
g:vimsyn_folding =~ 'a' : fold augroups
g:vimsyn_folding =~ 'c' : fold Vim9 classes
g:vimsyn_folding =~ 'e' : fold Vim9 enums
g:vimsyn_folding =~ 'f' : fold functions
g:vimsyn_folding =~ 'h' : fold heredocs
g:vimsyn_folding =~ 'i' : fold Vim9 interfaces
g:vimsyn_folding =~ 'H' : fold Vim9 legacy headers
g:vimsyn_folding =~ 'l' : fold Lua script
g:vimsyn_folding =~ 'm' : fold MzScheme script
g:vimsyn_folding =~ 'p' : fold Perl script
g:vimsyn_folding =~ 'P' : fold Python script
g:vimsyn_folding =~ 'r' : fold Ruby script
g:vimsyn_folding =~ 't' : fold Tcl script
By default, g:vimsyn_folding is unset. Concatenate the indicated characters
to support folding of multiple syntax constructs (e.g.,
g:vimsyn_folding = "fh" will enable folding of both functions and heredocs).
By default, strings are highlighted inside comments. This may be disabled by
setting g:vimsyn_comment_strings to false.
g:vimsyn_noerror
Not all error highlighting that syntax/vim.vim does may be correct; Vim script
is a difficult language to highlight correctly. A way to suppress error
highlighting is to put the following line in your vimrc:
let g:vimsyn_noerror = 1
WDL wdl.vim wdl-syntax
The Workflow Description Language is a way to specify data processing workflows
with a human-readable and writeable syntax. This is used a lot in
bioinformatics. More info on the spec can be found here:
https://github.com/openwdl/wdl
XF86CONFIG xf86conf.vim ft-xf86conf-syntax
The syntax of XF86Config file differs in XFree86 v3.x and v4.x. Both
variants are supported. Automatic detection is used, but is far from perfect.
You may need to specify the version manually. Set the variable
xf86conf_xfree86_version to 3 or 4 according to your XFree86 version in
your .vimrc. Example:
:let xf86conf_xfree86_version=3
When using a mix of versions, set the b:xf86conf_xfree86_version variable.
Note that spaces and underscores in option names are not supported. Use
"SyncOnGreen" instead of "__s yn con gr_e_e_n" if you want the option name
highlighted.
XML xml.vim ft-xml-syntax
Xml namespaces are highlighted by default. This can be inhibited by
setting a global variable:
:let g:xml_namespace_transparent=1
xml-folding
The xml syntax file provides syntax folding (see :syn-fold) between
start and end tags. This can be turned on by
:let g:xml_syntax_folding = 1
:set foldmethod=syntax
Note: Syntax folding might slow down syntax highlighting significantly,
especially for large files.
X Pixmaps (XPM) xpm.vim ft-xpm-syntax
xpm.vim creates its syntax items dynamically based upon the contents of the
XPM file. Thus if you make changes e.g. in the color specification strings,
you have to source it again e.g. with ":set syn=xpm".
To copy a pixel with one of the colors, yank a "pixel" with "yl" and insert it
somewhere else with "P".
Do you want to draw with the mouse? Try the following:
:function! GetPixel()
: let c = getline(".")[col(".") - 1]
: echo c
: exe "noremap <LeftMouse> <LeftMouse>r" .. c
: exe "noremap <LeftDrag> <LeftMouse>r" .. c
:endfunction
:noremap <RightMouse> <LeftMouse>:call GetPixel()<CR>
:set guicursor=n:hor20 " to see the color beneath the cursor
This turns the right button into a pipette and the left button into a pen.
It will work with XPM files that have one character per pixel only and you
must not click outside of the pixel strings, but feel free to improve it.
It will look much better with a font in a quadratic cell size, e.g. for X:
:set guifont=-*-clean-medium-r-*-*-8-*-*-*-*-80-*
YAML yaml.vim ft-yaml-syntax
g:yaml_schema b:yaml_schema
A YAML schema is a combination of a set of tags and a mechanism for resolving
non-specific tags. For user this means that YAML parser may, depending on
plain scalar contents, treat plain scalar (which can actually be only string
and nothing else) as a value of the other type: null, boolean, floating-point,
integer. g:yaml_schema option determines according to which schema values
will be highlighted specially. Supported schemas are
Schema Description
failsafe No additional highlighting.
json Supports JSON-style numbers, booleans and null.
core Supports more number, boolean and null styles.
pyyaml In addition to core schema supports highlighting timestamps,
but there are some differences in what is recognized as
numbers and many additional boolean values not present in core
schema.
Default schema is core.
Note that schemas are not actually limited to plain scalars, but this is the
only difference between schemas defined in YAML specification and the only
difference defined in the syntax file.
ZSH zsh.vim ft-zsh-syntax
The syntax script for zsh allows for syntax-based folding:
:let g:zsh_fold_enable = 1
==============================================================================
6. Defining a syntax :syn-define E410
Vim understands three types of syntax items:
1. Keyword
It can only contain keyword characters, according to the characters
specified with :syn-iskeyword or the 'iskeyword' option. It cannot
contain other syntax items. It will only match with a complete word (there
are no keyword characters before or after the match). The keyword "if"
would match in "if(a=b)", but not in "ifdef x", because "(" is not a
keyword character and "d" is.
2. Match
This is a match with a single regexp pattern.
3. Region
This starts at a match of the "start" regexp pattern and ends with a match
with the "end" regexp pattern. Any other text can appear in between. A
"skip" regexp pattern can be used to avoid matching the "end" pattern.
Several syntax ITEMs can be put into one syntax GROUP. For a syntax group
you can give highlighting attributes. For example, you could have an item
to define a "/* .. */" comment and another one that defines a "// .." comment,
and put them both in the "Comment" group. You can then specify that a
"Comment" will be in bold font and have a blue color. You are free to make
one highlight group for one syntax item, or put all items into one group.
This depends on how you want to specify your highlighting attributes. Putting
each item in its own group results in having to specify the highlighting
for a lot of groups.
Note that a syntax group and a highlight group are similar. For a highlight
group you will have given highlight attributes. These attributes will be used
for the syntax group with the same name.
In case more than one item matches at the same position, the one that was
defined LAST wins. Thus you can override previously defined syntax items by
using an item that matches the same text. But a keyword always goes before a
match or region. And a keyword with matching case always goes before a
keyword with ignoring case.
PRIORITY :syn-priority
When several syntax items may match, these rules are used:
1. When multiple Match or Region items start in the same position, the item
defined last has priority.
2. A Keyword has priority over Match and Region items.
3. An item that starts in an earlier position has priority over items that
start in later positions.
DEFINING CASE :syn-case E390
:sy[ntax] case [match | ignore]
This defines if the following ":syntax" commands will work with
matching case, when using "match", or with ignoring case, when using
"ignore". Note that any items before this are not affected, and all
items until the next ":syntax case" command are affected.
:sy[ntax] case
Show either "syntax case match" or "syntax case ignore".
DEFINING FOLDLEVEL :syn-foldlevel
:sy[ntax] foldlevel start
:sy[ntax] foldlevel minimum
This defines how the foldlevel of a line is computed when using
foldmethod=syntax (see fold-syntax and :syn-fold):
start: Use level of item containing start of line.
minimum: Use lowest local-minimum level of items on line.
The default is "start". Use "minimum" to search a line horizontally
for the lowest level contained on the line that is followed by a
higher level. This produces more natural folds when syntax items
may close and open horizontally within a line.
:sy[ntax] foldlevel
Show the current foldlevel method, either "syntax foldlevel start" or
"syntax foldlevel minimum".
{not meaningful when Vim was compiled without |+folding| feature}
SPELL CHECKING :syn-spell
:sy[ntax] spell toplevel
:sy[ntax] spell notoplevel
:sy[ntax] spell default
This defines where spell checking is to be done for text that is not
in a syntax item:
toplevel: Text is spell checked.
notoplevel: Text is not spell checked.
default: When there is a @Spell cluster no spell checking.
For text in syntax items use the @Spell and @NoSpell clusters
spell-syntax. When there is no @Spell and no @NoSpell cluster then
spell checking is done for "default" and "toplevel".
To activate spell checking the 'spell' option must be set.
:sy[ntax] spell
Show the current syntax spell checking method, either "syntax spell
toplevel", "syntax spell notoplevel" or "syntax spell default".
SYNTAX ISKEYWORD SETTING :syn-iskeyword
:sy[ntax] iskeyword [clear | {option}]
This defines the keyword characters. It's like the 'iskeyword' option
for but only applies to syntax highlighting.
clear: Syntax specific iskeyword setting is disabled and the
buffer-local 'iskeyword' setting is used.
{option} Set the syntax 'iskeyword' option to a new value.
Example:
:syntax iskeyword @,48-57,192-255,$,_
This would set the syntax specific iskeyword option to include all
alphabetic characters, plus the numeric characters, all accented
characters and also includes the "_" and the "$".
If no argument is given, the current value will be output.
Setting this option influences what /\k matches in syntax patterns
and also determines where :syn-keyword will be checked for a new
match.
It is recommended when writing syntax files, to use this command to
set the correct value for the specific syntax language and not change
the 'iskeyword' option.
DEFINING KEYWORDS :syn-keyword
:sy[ntax] keyword {group-name} [{options}] {keyword} .. [{options}]
This defines a number of keywords.
{group-name} Is a syntax group name such as "Comment".
[{options}] See :syn-arguments below.
{keyword} .. Is a list of keywords which are part of this group.
Example:
:syntax keyword Type int long char
The {options} can be given anywhere in the line. They will apply to
all keywords given, also for options that come after a keyword.
These examples do exactly the same:
:syntax keyword Type contained int long char
:syntax keyword Type int long contained char
:syntax keyword Type int long char contained
E789 E890
When you have a keyword with an optional tail, like Ex commands in
Vim, you can put the optional characters inside [], to define all the
variations at once:
:syntax keyword vimCommand ab[breviate] n[ext]
Don't forget that a keyword can only be recognized if all the
characters are included in the 'iskeyword' option. If one character
isn't, the keyword will never be recognized.
Multi-byte characters can also be used. These do not have to be in
'iskeyword'.
See :syn-iskeyword for defining syntax specific iskeyword settings.
A keyword always has higher priority than a match or region, the
keyword is used if more than one item matches. Keywords do not nest
and a keyword can't contain anything else.
Note that when you have a keyword that is the same as an option (even
one that isn't allowed here), you can not use it. Use a match
instead.
The maximum length of a keyword is 80 characters.
The same keyword can be defined multiple times, when its containment
differs. For example, you can define the keyword once not contained
and use one highlight group, and once contained, and use a different
highlight group. Example:
:syn keyword vimCommand tag
:syn keyword vimSetting contained tag
When finding "tag" outside of any syntax item, the "vimCommand"
highlight group is used. When finding "tag" in a syntax item that
contains "vimSetting", the "vimSetting" group is used.
DEFINING MATCHES :syn-match
:sy[ntax] match {group-name} [{options}]
[excludenl]
[keepend]
{pattern}
[{options}]
This defines one match.
{group-name} A syntax group name such as "Comment".
[{options}] See :syn-arguments below.
[excludenl] Don't make a pattern with the end-of-line "$"
extend a containing match or region. Must be
given before the pattern. :syn-excludenl
keepend Don't allow contained matches to go past a
match with the end pattern. See
:syn-keepend.
{pattern} The search pattern that defines the match.
See :syn-pattern below.
Note that the pattern may match more than one
line, which makes the match depend on where
Vim starts searching for the pattern. You
need to make sure syncing takes care of this.
Example (match a character constant):
:syntax match Character /'.'/hs=s+1,he=e-1
DEFINING REGIONS :syn-region :syn-start :syn-skip :syn-end
E398 E399
:sy[ntax] region {group-name} [{options}]
[matchgroup={group-name}]
[keepend]
[extend]
[excludenl]
start={start-pattern} ..
[skip={skip-pattern}]
end={end-pattern} ..
[{options}]
This defines one region. It may span several lines.
{group-name} A syntax group name such as "Comment".
[{options}] See :syn-arguments below.
[matchgroup={group-name}] The syntax group to use for the following
start or end pattern matches only. Not used
for the text in between the matched start and
end patterns. Use NONE to reset to not using
a different group for the start or end match.
See :syn-matchgroup.
keepend Don't allow contained matches to go past a
match with the end pattern. See
:syn-keepend.
extend Override a "keepend" for an item this region
is contained in. See :syn-extend.
excludenl Don't make a pattern with the end-of-line "$"
extend a containing match or item. Only
useful for end patterns. Must be given before
the patterns it applies to. :syn-excludenl
start={start-pattern} The search pattern that defines the start of
the region. See :syn-pattern below.
skip={skip-pattern} The search pattern that defines text inside
the region where not to look for the end
pattern. See :syn-pattern below.
end={end-pattern} The search pattern that defines the end of
the region. See :syn-pattern below.
Example:
:syntax region String start=+"+ skip=+\\"+ end=+"+
The start/skip/end patterns and the options can be given in any order.
There can be zero or one skip pattern. There must be one or more
start and end patterns. This means that you can omit the skip
pattern, but you must give at least one start and one end pattern. It
is allowed to have white space before and after the equal sign
(although it mostly looks better without white space).
When more than one start pattern is given, a match with one of these
is sufficient. This means there is an OR relation between the start
patterns. The last one that matches is used. The same is true for
the end patterns.
The search for the end pattern starts right after the start pattern.
Offsets are not used for this. This implies that the match for the
end pattern will never overlap with the start pattern.
The skip and end pattern can match across line breaks, but since the
search for the pattern can start in any line it often does not do what
you want. The skip pattern doesn't avoid a match of an end pattern in
the next line. Use single-line patterns to avoid trouble.
Note: The decision to start a region is only based on a matching start
pattern. There is no check for a matching end pattern. This does NOT
work:
:syn region First start="(" end=":"
:syn region Second start="(" end=";"
The Second always matches before the First (last defined pattern has
higher priority). The Second region then continues until the next
';', no matter if there is a ':' before it. Using a match does work:
:syn match First "(\_.\{-}:"
:syn match Second "(\_.\{-};"
This pattern matches any character or line break with "\_." and
repeats that with "\{-}" (repeat as few as possible).
:syn-keepend
By default, a contained match can obscure a match for the end pattern.
This is useful for nesting. For example, a region that starts with
"{" and ends with "}", can contain another region. An encountered "}"
will then end the contained region, but not the outer region:
{ starts outer "{}" region
{ starts contained "{}" region
} ends contained "{}" region
} ends outer "{} region
If you don't want this, the "keepend" argument will make the matching
of an end pattern of the outer region also end any contained item.
This makes it impossible to nest the same region, but allows for
contained items to highlight parts of the end pattern, without causing
that to skip the match with the end pattern. Example:
:syn match vimComment +"[^"]\+$+
:syn region vimCommand start="set" end="$" contains=vimComment keepend
The "keepend" makes the vimCommand always end at the end of the line,
even though the contained vimComment includes a match with the <EOL>.
When "keepend" is not used, a match with an end pattern is retried
after each contained match. When "keepend" is included, the first
encountered match with an end pattern is used, truncating any
contained matches.
:syn-extend
The "keepend" behavior can be changed by using the "extend" argument.
When an item with "extend" is contained in an item that uses
"keepend", the "keepend" is ignored and the containing region will be
extended.
This can be used to have some contained items extend a region while
others don't. Example:
:syn region htmlRef start=+<a>+ end=+</a>+ keepend contains=htmlItem,htmlScript
:syn match htmlItem +<[^>]*>+ contained
:syn region htmlScript start=+<script+ end=+</script[^>]*>+ contained extend
Here the htmlItem item does not make the htmlRef item continue
further, it is only used to highlight the <> items. The htmlScript
item does extend the htmlRef item.
Another example:
:syn region xmlFold start="<a>" end="</a>" fold transparent keepend extend
This defines a region with "keepend", so that its end cannot be
changed by contained items, like when the "</a>" is matched to
highlight it differently. But when the xmlFold region is nested (it
includes itself), the "extend" applies, so that the "</a>" of a nested
region only ends that region, and not the one it is contained in.
:syn-excludenl
When a pattern for a match or end pattern of a region includes a '$'
to match the end-of-line, it will make a region item that it is
contained in continue on the next line. For example, a match with
"\\$" (backslash at the end of the line) can make a region continue
that would normally stop at the end of the line. This is the default
behavior. If this is not wanted, there are two ways to avoid it:
1. Use "keepend" for the containing item. This will keep all
contained matches from extending the match or region. It can be
used when all contained items must not extend the containing item.
2. Use "excludenl" in the contained item. This will keep that match
from extending the containing match or region. It can be used if
only some contained items must not extend the containing item.
"excludenl" must be given before the pattern it applies to.
:syn-matchgroup
"matchgroup" can be used to highlight the start and/or end pattern
differently than the body of the region. Example:
:syntax region String matchgroup=Quote start=+"+ skip=+\\"+ end=+"+
This will highlight the quotes with the "Quote" group, and the text in
between with the "String" group.
The "matchgroup" is used for all start and end patterns that follow,
until the next "matchgroup". Use "matchgroup=NONE" to go back to not
using a matchgroup.
In a start or end pattern that is highlighted with "matchgroup" the
contained items of the region are not used. This can be used to avoid
that a contained item matches in the start or end pattern match. When
using "transparent", this does not apply to a start or end pattern
match that is highlighted with "matchgroup".
Here is an example, which highlights three levels of parentheses in
different colors:
:sy region par1 matchgroup=par1 start=/(/ end=/)/ contains=par2
:sy region par2 matchgroup=par2 start=/(/ end=/)/ contains=par3 contained
:sy region par3 matchgroup=par3 start=/(/ end=/)/ contains=par1 contained
:hi par1 ctermfg=red guifg=red
:hi par2 ctermfg=blue guifg=blue
:hi par3 ctermfg=darkgreen guifg=darkgreen
E849
The maximum number of syntax groups is 19999.
==============================================================================
7. :syntax arguments :syn-arguments
The :syntax commands that define syntax items take a number of arguments.
The common ones are explained here. The arguments may be given in any order
and may be mixed with patterns.
Not all commands accept all arguments. This table shows which arguments
can not be used for all commands:
E395
contains oneline fold display extend concealends
:syntax keyword - - - - - -
:syntax match yes - yes yes yes -
:syntax region yes yes yes yes yes yes
These arguments can be used for all three commands:
conceal
cchar
contained
containedin
nextgroup
transparent
skipwhite
skipnl
skipempty
conceal conceal :syn-conceal
When the "conceal" argument is given, the item is marked as concealable.
Whether or not it is actually concealed depends on the value of the
'conceallevel' option. The 'concealcursor' option is used to decide whether
concealable items in the current line are displayed unconcealed to be able to
edit the line.
Another way to conceal text is with matchadd(), but internally this works a
bit differently syntax-vs-match.
concealends :syn-concealends
When the "concealends" argument is given, the start and end matches of
the region, but not the contents of the region, are marked as concealable.
Whether or not they are actually concealed depends on the setting on the
'conceallevel' option. The ends of a region can only be concealed separately
in this way when they have their own highlighting via "matchgroup". The
synconcealed() function can be used to retrieve information about conealed
items.
cchar :syn-cchar
E844
The "cchar" argument defines the character shown in place of the item
when it is concealed (setting "cchar" only makes sense when the conceal
argument is given.) If "cchar" is not set then the default conceal
character defined in the 'listchars' option is used. The character cannot be
a control character such as Tab. Example:
:syntax match Entity "&" conceal cchar=&
See hl-Conceal for highlighting.
contained :syn-contained
When the "contained" argument is given, this item will not be recognized at
the top level, but only when it is mentioned in the "contains" field of
another match. Example:
:syntax keyword Todo TODO contained
:syntax match Comment "//.*" contains=Todo
display :syn-display
If the "display" argument is given, this item will be skipped when the
detected highlighting will not be displayed. This will speed up highlighting,
by skipping this item when only finding the syntax state for the text that is
to be displayed.
Generally, you can use "display" for match and region items that meet these
conditions:
- The item does not continue past the end of a line. Example for C: A region
for a "/*" comment can't contain "display", because it continues on the next
line.
- The item does not contain items that continue past the end of the line or
make it continue on the next line.
- The item does not change the size of any item it is contained in. Example
for C: A match with "\\$" in a preprocessor match can't have "display",
because it may make that preprocessor match shorter.
- The item does not allow other items to match that didn't match otherwise,
and that item may extend the match too far. Example for C: A match for a
"//" comment can't use "display", because a "/*" inside that comment would
match then and start a comment which extends past the end of the line.
Examples, for the C language, where "display" can be used:
- match with a number
- match with a label
transparent :syn-transparent
If the "transparent" argument is given, this item will not be highlighted
itself, but will take the highlighting of the item it is contained in. This
is useful for syntax items that don't need any highlighting but are used
only to skip over a part of the text.
The "contains=" argument is also inherited from the item it is contained in,
unless a "contains" argument is given for the transparent item itself. To
avoid that unwanted items are contained, use "contains=NONE". Example, which
highlights words in strings, but makes an exception for "vim":
:syn match myString /'[^']*'/ contains=myWord,myVim
:syn match myWord /\<[a-z]*\>/ contained
:syn match myVim /\<vim\>/ transparent contained contains=NONE
:hi link myString String
:hi link myWord Comment
Since the "myVim" match comes after "myWord" it is the preferred match (last
match in the same position overrules an earlier one). The "transparent"
argument makes the "myVim" match use the same highlighting as "myString". But
it does not contain anything. If the "contains=NONE" argument would be left
out, then "myVim" would use the contains argument from myString and allow
"myWord" to be contained, which will be highlighted as a Comment. This
happens because a contained match doesn't match inside itself in the same
position, thus the "myVim" match doesn't overrule the "myWord" match here.
When you look at the colored text, it is like looking at layers of contained
items. The contained item is on top of the item it is contained in, thus you
see the contained item. When a contained item is transparent, you can look
through, thus you see the item it is contained in. In a picture:
look from here
| | | | | |
V V V V V V
xxxx yyy more contained items
.................... contained item (transparent)
============================= first item
The 'x', 'y' and '=' represent a highlighted syntax item. The '.' represent a
transparent group.
What you see is:
=======xxxx=======yyy========
Thus you look through the transparent "....".
oneline :syn-oneline
The "oneline" argument indicates that the region does not cross a line
boundary. It must match completely in the current line. However, when the
region has a contained item that does cross a line boundary, it continues on
the next line anyway. A contained item can be used to recognize a line
continuation pattern. But the "end" pattern must still match in the first
line, otherwise the region doesn't even start.
When the start pattern includes a "\n" to match an end-of-line, the end
pattern must be found in the same line as where the start pattern ends. The
end pattern may also include an end-of-line. Thus the "oneline" argument
means that the end of the start pattern and the start of the end pattern must
be within one line. This can't be changed by a skip pattern that matches a
line break.
fold :syn-fold
The "fold" argument makes the fold level increase by one for this item.
Example:
:syn region myFold start="{" end="}" transparent fold
:syn sync fromstart
:set foldmethod=syntax
This will make each {} block form one fold.
The fold will start on the line where the item starts, and end where the item
ends. If the start and end are within the same line, there is no fold.
The 'foldnestmax' option limits the nesting of syntax folds.
See :syn-foldlevel to control how the foldlevel of a line is computed
from its syntax items.
{not available when Vim was compiled without |+folding| feature}
:syn-contains E405 E406 E407 E408 E409
contains={group-name},..
The "contains" argument is followed by a list of syntax group names. These
groups will be allowed to begin inside the item (they may extend past the
containing group's end). This allows for recursive nesting of matches and
regions. If there is no "contains" argument, no groups will be contained in
this item. The group names do not need to be defined before they can be used
here.
contains=ALL
If the only item in the contains list is "ALL", then all
groups will be accepted inside the item.
contains=ALLBUT,{group-name},..
If the first item in the contains list is "ALLBUT", then all
groups will be accepted inside the item, except the ones that
are listed. Example:
:syntax region Block start="{" end="}" ... contains=ALLBUT,Function
contains=TOP
If the first item in the contains list is "TOP", then all
groups will be accepted that don't have the "contained"
argument.
contains=TOP,{group-name},..
Like "TOP", but excluding the groups that are listed.
contains=CONTAINED
If the first item in the contains list is "CONTAINED", then
all groups will be accepted that have the "contained"
argument.
contains=CONTAINED,{group-name},..
Like "CONTAINED", but excluding the groups that are
listed.
The {group-name} in the "contains" list can be a pattern. All group names
that match the pattern will be included (or excluded, if "ALLBUT" is used).
The pattern cannot contain white space or a ','. Example:
... contains=Comment.*,Keyw[0-3]
The matching will be done at moment the syntax command is executed. Groups
that are defined later will not be matched. Also, if the current syntax
command defines a new group, it is not matched. Be careful: When putting
syntax commands in a file you can't rely on groups NOT being defined, because
the file may have been sourced before, and ":syn clear" doesn't remove the
group names.
The contained groups will also match in the start and end patterns of a
region. If this is not wanted, the "matchgroup" argument can be used
:syn-matchgroup. The "ms=" and "me=" offsets can be used to change the
region where contained items do match. Note that this may also limit the
area that is highlighted
containedin={group-name}... :syn-containedin
The "containedin" argument is followed by a list of syntax group names. The
item will be allowed to begin inside these groups. This works as if the
containing item has a "contains=" argument that includes this item.
The {group-name}... can be used just like for "contains", as explained above.
This is useful when adding a syntax item afterwards. An item can be told to
be included inside an already existing item, without changing the definition
of that item. For example, to highlight a word in a C comment after loading
the C syntax:
:syn keyword myword HELP containedin=cComment contained
Note that "contained" is also used, to avoid that the item matches at the top
level.
Matches for "containedin" are added to the other places where the item can
appear. A "contains" argument may also be added as usual. Don't forget that
keywords never contain another item, thus adding them to "containedin" won't
work.
nextgroup={group-name},.. :syn-nextgroup
The "nextgroup" argument is followed by a list of syntax group names,
separated by commas (just like with "contains", so you can also use patterns).
If the "nextgroup" argument is given, the mentioned syntax groups will be
tried for a match, after the match or region ends. If none of the groups have
a match, highlighting continues normally. If there is a match, this group
will be used, even when it is not mentioned in the "contains" field of the
current group. This is like giving the mentioned group priority over all
other groups. Example:
:syntax match ccFoobar "Foo.\{-}Bar" contains=ccFoo
:syntax match ccFoo "Foo" contained nextgroup=ccFiller
:syntax region ccFiller start="." matchgroup=ccBar end="Bar" contained
This will highlight "Foo" and "Bar" differently, and only when there is a
"Bar" after "Foo". In the text line below, "f" shows where ccFoo is used for
highlighting, and "bbb" where ccBar is used.
Foo asdfasd Bar asdf Foo asdf Bar asdf
fff bbb fff bbb
Note the use of ".\{-}" to skip as little as possible until the next Bar.
when ".*" would be used, the "asdf" in between "Bar" and "Foo" would be
highlighted according to the "ccFoobar" group, because the ccFooBar match
would include the first "Foo" and the last "Bar" in the line (see pattern).
skipwhite :syn-skipwhite
skipnl :syn-skipnl
skipempty :syn-skipempty
These arguments are only used in combination with "nextgroup". They can be
used to allow the next group to match after skipping some text:
skipwhite skip over space and tab characters
skipnl skip over the end of a line
skipempty skip over empty lines (implies a "skipnl")
When "skipwhite" is present, the white space is only skipped if there is no
next group that matches the white space.
When "skipnl" is present, the match with nextgroup may be found in the next
line. This only happens when the current item ends at the end of the current
line! When "skipnl" is not present, the nextgroup will only be found after
the current item in the same line.
When skipping text while looking for a next group, the matches for other
groups are ignored. Only when no next group matches, other items are tried
for a match again. This means that matching a next group and skipping white
space and <EOL>s has a higher priority than other items.
Example:
:syn match ifstart "\<if.*" nextgroup=ifline skipwhite skipempty
:syn match ifline "[^ \t].*" nextgroup=ifline skipwhite skipempty contained
:syn match ifline "endif" contained
Note that the "[^ \t].*" match matches all non-white text. Thus it would also
match "endif". Therefore the "endif" match is put last, so that it takes
precedence.
Note that this example doesn't work for nested "if"s. You need to add
"contains" arguments to make that work (omitted for simplicity of the
example).
IMPLICIT CONCEAL :syn-conceal-implicit
:sy[ntax] conceal [on|off]
This defines if the following ":syntax" commands will define keywords,
matches or regions with the "conceal" flag set. After ":syn conceal
on", all subsequent ":syn keyword", ":syn match" or ":syn region"
defined will have the "conceal" flag set implicitly. ":syn conceal
off" returns to the normal state where the "conceal" flag must be
given explicitly.
:sy[ntax] conceal
Show either "syntax conceal on" or "syntax conceal off".
==============================================================================
8. Syntax patterns :syn-pattern E401 E402
In the syntax commands, a pattern must be surrounded by two identical
characters. This is like it works for the ":s" command. The most common to
use is the double quote. But if the pattern contains a double quote, you can
use another character that is not used in the pattern. Examples:
:syntax region Comment start="/\*" end="\*/"
:syntax region String start=+"+ end=+"+ skip=+\\"+
See pattern for the explanation of what a pattern is. Syntax patterns are
always interpreted like the 'magic' option is set, no matter what the actual
value of 'magic' is. And the patterns are interpreted like the 'l' flag is
not included in 'cpoptions'. This was done to make syntax files portable and
independent of 'compatible' and 'magic' settings.
Try to avoid patterns that can match an empty string, such as "[a-z]*".
This slows down the highlighting a lot, because it matches everywhere.
:syn-pattern-offset
The pattern can be followed by a character offset. This can be used to
change the highlighted part, and to change the text area included in the
match or region (which only matters when trying to match other items). Both
are relative to the matched pattern. The character offset for a skip
pattern can be used to tell where to continue looking for an end pattern.
The offset takes the form of "{what}={offset}"
The {what} can be one of seven strings:
ms Match Start offset for the start of the matched text
me Match End offset for the end of the matched text
hs Highlight Start offset for where the highlighting starts
he Highlight End offset for where the highlighting ends
rs Region Start offset for where the body of a region starts
re Region End offset for where the body of a region ends
lc Leading Context offset past "leading context" of pattern
The {offset} can be:
s start of the matched pattern
s+{nr} start of the matched pattern plus {nr} chars to the right
s-{nr} start of the matched pattern plus {nr} chars to the left
e end of the matched pattern
e+{nr} end of the matched pattern plus {nr} chars to the right
e-{nr} end of the matched pattern plus {nr} chars to the left
{nr} (for "lc" only): start matching {nr} chars right of the start
Examples: "ms=s+1", "hs=e-2", "lc=3".
Although all offsets are accepted after any pattern, they are not always
meaningful. This table shows which offsets are actually used:
ms me hs he rs re lc
match item yes yes yes yes - - yes
region item start yes - yes - yes - yes
region item skip - yes - - - - yes
region item end - yes - yes - yes yes
Offsets can be concatenated, with a ',' in between. Example:
:syn match String /"[^"]*"/hs=s+1,he=e-1
some "string" text
^^^^^^ highlighted
Notes:
- There must be no white space between the pattern and the character
offset(s).
- The highlighted area will never be outside of the matched text.
- A negative offset for an end pattern may not always work, because the end
pattern may be detected when the highlighting should already have stopped.
- Before Vim 7.2 the offsets were counted in bytes instead of characters.
This didn't work well for multibyte characters, so it was changed with the
Vim 7.2 release.
- The start of a match cannot be in a line other than where the pattern
matched. This doesn't work: "a\nb"ms=e. You can make the highlighting
start in another line, this does work: "a\nb"hs=e.
Example (match a comment but don't highlight the /* and */):
:syntax region Comment start="/\*"hs=e+1 end="\*/"he=s-1
/* this is a comment */
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ highlighted
A more complicated Example:
:syn region Exa matchgroup=Foo start="foo"hs=s+2,rs=e+2 matchgroup=Bar end="bar"me=e-1,he=e-1,re=s-1
abcfoostringbarabc
mmmmmmmmmmm match
sssrrreee highlight start/region/end ("Foo", "Exa" and "Bar")
Leading context :syn-lc :syn-leading :syn-context
Note: This is an obsolete feature, only included for backwards compatibility
with previous Vim versions. It's now recommended to use the /\@<= construct
in the pattern. You can also often use /\zs.
The "lc" offset specifies leading context -- a part of the pattern that must
be present, but is not considered part of the match. An offset of "lc=n" will
cause Vim to step back n columns before attempting the pattern match, allowing
characters which have already been matched in previous patterns to also be
used as leading context for this match. This can be used, for instance, to
specify that an "escaping" character must not precede the match:
:syn match ZNoBackslash "[^\\]z"ms=s+1
:syn match WNoBackslash "[^\\]w"lc=1
:syn match Underline "_\+"
___zzzz ___wwww
^^^ ^^^ matches Underline
^ ^ matches ZNoBackslash
^^^^ matches WNoBackslash
The "ms" offset is automatically set to the same value as the "lc" offset,
unless you set "ms" explicitly.
Multi-line patterns :syn-multi-line
The patterns can include "\n" to match an end-of-line. Mostly this works as
expected, but there are a few exceptions.
When using a start pattern with an offset, the start of the match is not
allowed to start in a following line. The highlighting can start in a
following line though. Using the "\zs" item also requires that the start of
the match doesn't move to another line.
The skip pattern can include the "\n", but the search for an end pattern will
continue in the first character of the next line, also when that character is
matched by the skip pattern. This is because redrawing may start in any line
halfway a region and there is no check if the skip pattern started in a
previous line. For example, if the skip pattern is "a\nb" and an end pattern
is "b", the end pattern does match in the second line of this:
x x a
b x x
Generally this means that the skip pattern should not match any characters
after the "\n".
External matches :syn-ext-match
These extra regular expression items are available in region patterns:
/\z( /\z(\) E50 E52 E879
\z(\) Marks the sub-expression as "external", meaning that it can be
accessed from another pattern match. Currently only usable in
defining a syntax region start pattern.
/\z1 /\z2 /\z3 /\z4 /\z5
\z1 ... \z9 /\z6 /\z7 /\z8 /\z9 E66 E67
Matches the same string that was matched by the corresponding
sub-expression in a previous start pattern match.
Sometimes the start and end patterns of a region need to share a common
sub-expression. A common example is the "here" document in Perl and many Unix
shells. This effect can be achieved with the "\z" special regular expression
items, which marks a sub-expression as "external", in the sense that it can be
referenced from outside the pattern in which it is defined. The here-document
example, for instance, can be done like this:
:syn region hereDoc start="<<\z(\I\i*\)" end="^\z1$"
As can be seen here, the \z actually does double duty. In the start pattern,
it marks the "\(\I\i*\)" sub-expression as external; in the end pattern, it
changes the \z1 back-reference into an external reference referring to the
first external sub-expression in the start pattern. External references can
also be used in skip patterns:
:syn region foo start="start \z(\I\i*\)" skip="not end \z1" end="end \z1"
Note that normal and external sub-expressions are completely orthogonal and
indexed separately; for instance, if the pattern "\z(..\)\(..\)" is applied
to the string "aabb", then \1 will refer to "bb" and \z1 will refer to "aa".
Note also that external sub-expressions cannot be accessed as back-references
within the same pattern like normal sub-expressions. If you want to use one
sub-expression as both a normal and an external sub-expression, you can nest
the two, as in "\(\z(...\)\)".
Note that only matches within a single line can be used. Multi-line matches
cannot be referred to.
==============================================================================
9. Syntax clusters :syn-cluster E400
:sy[ntax] cluster {cluster-name} [contains={group-name}..]
[add={group-name}..]
[remove={group-name}..]
This command allows you to cluster a list of syntax groups together under a
single name.
contains={group-name}..
The cluster is set to the specified list of groups.
add={group-name}..
The specified groups are added to the cluster.
remove={group-name}..
The specified groups are removed from the cluster.
A cluster so defined may be referred to in a contains=.., containedin=..,
nextgroup=.., add=.. or remove=.. list with a "@" prefix. You can also use
this notation to implicitly declare a cluster before specifying its contents.
Example:
:syntax match Thing "# [^#]\+ #" contains=@ThingMembers
:syntax cluster ThingMembers contains=ThingMember1,ThingMember2
As the previous example suggests, modifications to a cluster are effectively
retroactive; the membership of the cluster is checked at the last minute, so
to speak:
:syntax keyword A aaa
:syntax keyword B bbb
:syntax cluster AandB contains=A
:syntax match Stuff "( aaa bbb )" contains=@AandB
:syntax cluster AandB add=B " now both keywords are matched in Stuff
This also has implications for nested clusters:
:syntax keyword A aaa
:syntax keyword B bbb
:syntax cluster SmallGroup contains=B
:syntax cluster BigGroup contains=A,@SmallGroup
:syntax match Stuff "( aaa bbb )" contains=@BigGroup
:syntax cluster BigGroup remove=B " no effect, since B isn't in BigGroup
:syntax cluster SmallGroup remove=B " now bbb isn't matched within Stuff
E848
The maximum number of clusters is 9767.
==============================================================================
10. Including syntax files :syn-include E397
It is often useful for one language's syntax file to include a syntax file for
a related language. Depending on the exact relationship, this can be done in
two different ways:
- If top-level syntax items in the included syntax file are to be
allowed at the top level in the including syntax, you can simply use
the :runtime command:
" In cpp.vim:
:runtime! syntax/c.vim
:unlet b:current_syntax
- If top-level syntax items in the included syntax file are to be
contained within a region in the including syntax, you can use the
":syntax include" command:
:sy[ntax] include [@{grouplist-name}] {file-name}
All syntax items declared in the included file will have the
"contained" flag added. In addition, if a group list is specified,
all top-level syntax items in the included file will be added to
that list.
" In perl.vim:
:syntax include @Pod <sfile>:p:h/pod.vim
:syntax region perlPOD start="^=head" end="^=cut" contains=@Pod
When {file-name} is an absolute path (starts with "/", "c:", "$VAR"
or "<sfile>") that file is sourced. When it is a relative path
(e.g., "syntax/pod.vim") the file is searched for in 'runtimepath'.
All matching files are loaded. Using a relative path is
recommended, because it allows a user to replace the included file
with their own version, without replacing the file that does the
":syn include".
E847
The maximum number of includes is 999.
==============================================================================
11. Synchronizing :syn-sync E403 E404
Vim wants to be able to start redrawing in any position in the document. To
make this possible it needs to know the syntax state at the position where
redrawing starts.
:sy[ntax] sync [ccomment [group-name] | minlines={N} | ...]
There are four ways to synchronize:
1. Always parse from the start of the file.
:syn-sync-first
2. Based on C-style comments. Vim understands how C-comments work and can
figure out if the current line starts inside or outside a comment.
:syn-sync-second
3. Jumping back a certain number of lines and start parsing there.
:syn-sync-third
4. Searching backwards in the text for a pattern to sync on.
:syn-sync-fourth
:syn-sync-maxlines :syn-sync-minlines
For the last three methods, the line range where the parsing can start is
limited by "minlines" and "maxlines".
If the "minlines={N}" argument is given, the parsing always starts at least
that many lines backwards. This can be used if the parsing may take a few
lines before it's correct, or when it's not possible to use syncing.
If the "maxlines={N}" argument is given, the number of lines that are searched
for a comment or syncing pattern is restricted to N lines backwards (after
adding "minlines"). This is useful if you have few things to sync on and a
slow machine. Example:
:syntax sync maxlines=500 ccomment
:syn-sync-linebreaks
When using a pattern that matches multiple lines, a change in one line may
cause a pattern to no longer match in a previous line. This means has to
start above where the change was made. How many lines can be specified with
the "linebreaks" argument. For example, when a pattern may include one line
break use this:
:syntax sync linebreaks=1
The result is that redrawing always starts at least one line before where a
change was made. The default value for "linebreaks" is zero. Usually the
value for "minlines" is bigger than "linebreaks".
First syncing method: :syn-sync-first
:syntax sync fromstart
The file will be parsed from the start. This makes syntax highlighting
accurate, but can be slow for long files. Vim caches previously parsed text,
so that it's only slow when parsing the text for the first time. However,
when making changes some part of the text needs to be parsed again (worst
case: to the end of the file).
Using "fromstart" is equivalent to using "minlines" with a very large number.
Second syncing method: :syn-sync-second
For the second method, only the "ccomment" argument needs to be given.
Example:
:syntax sync ccomment
When Vim finds that the line where displaying starts is inside a C-style
comment, the last region syntax item with the group-name "Comment" will be
used. This requires that there is a region with the group-name "Comment"!
An alternate group name can be specified, for example:
:syntax sync ccomment javaComment
This means that the last item specified with "syn region javaComment" will be
used for the detected C comment region. This only works properly if that
region does have a start pattern "\/*" and an end pattern "*\/".
The "maxlines" argument can be used to restrict the search to a number of
lines. The "minlines" argument can be used to at least start a number of
lines back (e.g., for when there is some construct that only takes a few
lines, but it hard to sync on).
Note: Syncing on a C comment doesn't work properly when strings are used
that cross a line and contain a "*/". Since letting strings cross a line
is a bad programming habit (many compilers give a warning message), and the
chance of a "*/" appearing inside a comment is very small, this restriction
is hardly ever noticed.
Third syncing method: :syn-sync-third
For the third method, only the "minlines={N}" argument needs to be given.
Vim will subtract {N} from the line number and start parsing there. This
means {N} extra lines need to be parsed, which makes this method a bit slower.
Example:
:syntax sync minlines=50
"lines" is equivalent to "minlines" (used by older versions).
Fourth syncing method: :syn-sync-fourth
The idea is to synchronize on the end of a few specific regions, called a
sync pattern. Only regions can cross lines, so when we find the end of some
region, we might be able to know in which syntax item we are. The search
starts in the line just above the one where redrawing starts. From there
the search continues backwards in the file.
This works just like the non-syncing syntax items. You can use contained
matches, nextgroup, etc. But there are a few differences:
- Keywords cannot be used.
- The syntax items with the "sync" keyword form a completely separated group
of syntax items. You can't mix syncing groups and non-syncing groups.
- The matching works backwards in the buffer (line by line), instead of
forwards.
- A line continuation pattern can be given. It is used to decide which group
of lines need to be searched like they were one line. This means that the
search for a match with the specified items starts in the first of the
consecutive lines that contain the continuation pattern.
- When using "nextgroup" or "contains", this only works within one line (or
group of continued lines).
- When using a region, it must start and end in the same line (or group of
continued lines). Otherwise the end is assumed to be at the end of the
line (or group of continued lines).
- When a match with a sync pattern is found, the rest of the line (or group of
continued lines) is searched for another match. The last match is used.
This is used when a line can contain both the start and the end of a region
(e.g., in a C-comment like /* this */, the last "*/" is used).
There are two ways how a match with a sync pattern can be used:
1. Parsing for highlighting starts where redrawing starts (and where the
search for the sync pattern started). The syntax group that is expected
to be valid there must be specified. This works well when the regions
that cross lines cannot contain other regions.
2. Parsing for highlighting continues just after the match. The syntax group
that is expected to be present just after the match must be specified.
This can be used when the previous method doesn't work well. It's much
slower, because more text needs to be parsed.
Both types of sync patterns can be used at the same time.
Besides the sync patterns, other matches and regions can be specified, to
avoid finding unwanted matches.
[The reason that the sync patterns are given separately, is that mostly the
search for the sync point can be much simpler than figuring out the
highlighting. The reduced number of patterns means it will go (much)
faster.]
syn-sync-grouphere E393 E394
:syntax sync match {sync-group-name} grouphere {group-name} "pattern" ..
Define a match that is used for syncing. {group-name} is the
name of a syntax group that follows just after the match. Parsing
of the text for highlighting starts just after the match. A region
must exist for this {group-name}. The first one defined will be used.
"NONE" can be used for when there is no syntax group after the match.
syn-sync-groupthere
:syntax sync match {sync-group-name} groupthere {group-name} "pattern" ..
Like "grouphere", but {group-name} is the name of a syntax group that
is to be used at the start of the line where searching for the sync
point started. The text between the match and the start of the sync
pattern searching is assumed not to change the syntax highlighting.
For example, in C you could search backwards for "/*" and "*/". If
"/*" is found first, you know that you are inside a comment, so the
"groupthere" is "cComment". If "*/" is found first, you know that you
are not in a comment, so the "groupthere" is "NONE". (in practice
it's a bit more complicated, because the "/*" and "*/" could appear
inside a string. That's left as an exercise to the reader...).
:syntax sync match ..
:syntax sync region ..
Without a "groupthere" argument. Define a region or match that is
skipped while searching for a sync point.
syn-sync-linecont
:syntax sync linecont {pattern}
When {pattern} matches in a line, it is considered to continue in
the next line. This means that the search for a sync point will
consider the lines to be concatenated.
If the "maxlines={N}" argument is given too, the number of lines that are
searched for a match is restricted to N. This is useful if you have very
few things to sync on and a slow machine. Example:
:syntax sync maxlines=100
You can clear all sync settings with:
:syntax sync clear
You can clear specific sync patterns with:
:syntax sync clear {sync-group-name} ..
==============================================================================
12. Listing syntax items :syntax :sy :syn :syn-list
This command lists all the syntax items:
:sy[ntax] [list]
To show the syntax items for one syntax group:
:sy[ntax] list {group-name}
To list the syntax groups in one cluster: E392
:sy[ntax] list @{cluster-name}
See above for other arguments for the ":syntax" command.
Note that the ":syntax" command can be abbreviated to ":sy", although ":syn"
is mostly used, because it looks better.
==============================================================================
13. Colorschemes color-schemes
In the next section you can find information about individual highlight groups
and how to specify colors for them. Most likely you want to just select a set
of colors by using the :colorscheme command, for example:
colorscheme pablo
:colo :colorscheme E185
:colo[rscheme] Output the name of the currently active color scheme.
This is basically the same as
:echo g:colors_name
In case g:colors_name has not been defined :colo will
output "default". Its palette is defined in the file
"$VIMRUNTIME/syntax/syncolor.vim" and is based on
legacy versions of peachpuff and desert. When compiled
without the +eval feature it will output "unknown".
:colo[rscheme] {name} Load color scheme {name}. This searches 'runtimepath'
for the file "colors/{name}.vim". The first one that
is found is loaded.
Use `:colo default` to load the default colorscheme.
Also searches all plugins in 'packpath', first below
"start" and then under "opt".
Doesn't work recursively, thus you can't use
":colorscheme" in a color scheme script.
You have two options for customizing a color scheme. For changing the
appearance of specific colors, you can redefine a color name before loading
the scheme. The desert scheme uses the khaki color for the cursor. To use a
darker variation of the same color:
let v:colornames['khaki'] = '#bdb76b'
colorscheme desert
For further customization, such as changing :highlight-link associations,
use another name, e.g. "~/.vim/colors/mine.vim", and use :runtime to load
the original color scheme:
runtime colors/evening.vim
hi Statement ctermfg=Blue guifg=Blue
Before the color scheme will be loaded all default color list scripts
(`colors/lists/default.vim`) will be executed and then the ColorSchemePre
autocommand event is triggered. After the color scheme has been loaded the
ColorScheme autocommand event is triggered.
colorscheme-override
If a color scheme is almost right, you can add modifications on top of it by
using the ColorScheme autocommand. For example, to remove the background
color (can make it transparent in some terminals):
augroup my_colorschemes
au!
au Colorscheme pablo hi Normal ctermbg=NONE
augroup END
Change a couple more colors:
augroup my_colorschemes
au!
au Colorscheme pablo hi Normal ctermbg=NONE
\ | highlight Special ctermfg=63
\ | highlight Identifier ctermfg=44
augroup END
If you make a lot of changes it might be better to copy the distributed
colorscheme to your home directory and change it:
:!cp $VIMRUNTIME/colors/pablo.vim ~/.vim/colors
:edit ~/.vim/colors/pablo.vim
With Vim 9.0 the collection of color schemes was updated and made work in many
different terminals. One change was to often define the Normal highlight
group to make sure the colors work well. In case you prefer the old version,
you can find them here:
https://github.com/vim/colorschemes/blob/master/legacy_colors/
For info about writing a color scheme file:
:edit $VIMRUNTIME/colors/README.txt
==============================================================================
14. Highlight command :highlight :hi E28 E411 E415
There are three types of highlight groups:
- The ones used for specific languages. For these the name starts with the
name of the language. Many of these don't have any attributes, but are
linked to a group of the second type.
- The ones used for all syntax languages.
- The ones used for the 'highlight' option.
hitest.vim
You can see all the groups currently active with this command:
:so $VIMRUNTIME/syntax/hitest.vim
This will open a new window containing all highlight group names, displayed
in their own color.
:hi[ghlight] List all the current highlight groups that have
attributes set.
:hi[ghlight] {group-name}
List one highlight group.
highlight-clear :hi-clear
:hi[ghlight] clear Reset all highlighting to the defaults. Removes all
highlighting for groups added by the user.
Uses the current value of 'background' to decide which
default colors to use.
If there was a default link, restore it. :hi-link
:hi[ghlight] clear {group-name}
:hi[ghlight] {group-name} NONE
Disable the highlighting for one highlight group. It
is _not_ set back to the default colors.
:hi[ghlight] [default] {group-name} {key}={arg} ..
Add a highlight group, or change the highlighting for
an existing group. If a given color name is not
recognized, each colors/lists/default.vim found on
'runtimepath' will be loaded.
See highlight-args for the {key}={arg} arguments.
See :highlight-default for the optional [default]
argument.
Normally a highlight group is added once when starting up. This sets the
default values for the highlighting. After that, you can use additional
highlight commands to change the arguments that you want to set to non-default
values. The value "NONE" can be used to switch the value off or go back to
the default value.
A simple way to change colors is with the :colorscheme command. This loads
a file with ":highlight" commands such as this:
:hi Comment gui=bold
Note that all settings that are not included remain the same, only the
specified field is used, and settings are merged with previous ones. So, the
result is like this single command has been used:
:hi Comment term=bold ctermfg=Cyan guifg=#80a0ff gui=bold
:highlight-verbose
When listing a highlight group and 'verbose' is non-zero, the listing will
also tell where it was last set. Example:
:verbose hi Comment
Comment xxx term=bold ctermfg=4 guifg=Blue
Last set from /home/mool/vim/vim7/runtime/syntax/syncolor.vim
When ":hi clear" is used then the script where this command is used will be
mentioned for the default values. See :verbose-cmd for more information.
highlight-args E416 E417 E423
There are three types of terminals for highlighting:
term a normal terminal (vt100, xterm)
cterm a color terminal (MS-Windows console, color-xterm, these have the "Co"
termcap entry)
gui the GUI
For each type the highlighting can be given. This makes it possible to use
the same syntax file on all terminals, and use the optimal highlighting.
1. highlight arguments for normal terminals
bold underline undercurl
underdouble underdotted
underdashed inverse italic
standout nocombine strikethrough
term={attr-list} attr-list highlight-term E418
attr-list is a comma-separated list (without spaces) of the
following items (in any order):
bold
underline
undercurl not always available
underdouble not always available
underdotted not always available
underdashed not always available
strikethrough not always available
reverse
inverse same as reverse
italic
standout
nocombine override attributes instead of combining them
NONE no attributes used (used to reset it)
Note that "bold" can be used here and by using a bold font. They
have the same effect.
underline-codes
"undercurl" is a curly underline. When "undercurl" is not possible
then "underline" is used. In general "undercurl" and "strikethrough"
are only available in the GUI and some terminals. The color is set
with highlight-guisp or highlight-ctermul. You can try these
termcap entries to make undercurl work in a terminal:
let &t_Cs = "\e[4:3m"
let &t_Ce = "\e[4:0m"
"underdouble" is a double underline, "underdotted" is a dotted
underline and "underdashed" is a dashed underline. These are only
supported by some terminals. If your terminal supports them you may
have to specify the codes like this:
let &t_Us = "\e[4:2m"
let &t_ds = "\e[4:4m"
let &t_Ds = "\e[4:5m"
They are reset with t_Ce, the same as curly underline (undercurl).
When t_Us, t_ds or t_Ds is not set then underline will be used as a
fallback.
start={term-list} highlight-start E422
stop={term-list} term-list highlight-stop
These lists of terminal codes can be used to get
non-standard attributes on a terminal.
The escape sequence specified with the "start" argument
is written before the characters in the highlighted
area. It can be anything that you want to send to the
terminal to highlight this area. The escape sequence
specified with the "stop" argument is written after the
highlighted area. This should undo the "start" argument.
Otherwise the screen will look messed up.
The {term-list} can have two forms:
1. A string with escape sequences.
This is any string of characters, except that it can't start with
"t_" and blanks are not allowed. The <> notation is recognized
here, so you can use things like "<Esc>" and "<Space>". Example:
start=<Esc>[27h;<Esc>[<Space>r;
2. A list of terminal codes.
Each terminal code has the form "t_xx", where "xx" is the name of
the termcap entry. The codes have to be separated with commas.
White space is not allowed. Example:
start=t_C1,t_BL
The terminal codes must exist for this to work.
2. highlight arguments for color terminals
cterm={attr-list} highlight-cterm
See above for the description of {attr-list} attr-list.
The "cterm" argument is likely to be different from "term", when
colors are used. For example, in a normal terminal comments could
be underlined, in a color terminal they can be made Blue.
Note: Some terminals (e.g., DOS console) can't mix these attributes
with coloring. To be portable, use only one of "cterm=" OR "ctermfg="
OR "ctermbg=".
ctermfg={color-nr} highlight-ctermfg E421
ctermbg={color-nr} highlight-ctermbg
ctermul={color-nr} highlight-ctermul
These give the foreground (ctermfg), background (ctermbg) and
underline (ctermul) color to use in the terminal.
The {color-nr} argument is a color number. Its range is zero to
(not including) the number given by the termcap entry "Co".
The actual color with this number depends on the type of terminal
and its settings. Sometimes the color also depends on the settings of
"cterm". For example, on some systems "cterm=bold ctermfg=3" gives
another color, on others you just get color 3.
For an xterm this depends on your resources, and is a bit
unpredictable. See your xterm documentation for the defaults. The
colors for a color-xterm can be changed from the .Xdefaults file.
Unfortunately this means that it's not possible to get the same colors
for each user. See xterm-color for info about color xterms.
tmux
When using tmux you may want to use this in the tmux config:
# tmux colors
set -s default-terminal "tmux-256color"
set -as terminal-overrides ",*-256color:Tc"
More info at:
https://github.com/tmux/tmux/wiki/FAQ#how-do-i-use-a-256-colour-terminal
https://github.com/tmux/tmux/wiki/FAQ#how-do-i-use-rgb-colour
The MS-Windows standard colors are fixed (in a console window), so
these have been used for the names. But the meaning of color names in
X11 are fixed, so these color settings have been used, to make the
highlighting settings portable (complicated, isn't it?). The
following names are recognized, with the color number used:
cterm-colors
NR-16 NR-8 COLOR NAME
0 0 Black
1 4 DarkBlue
2 2 DarkGreen
3 6 DarkCyan
4 1 DarkRed
5 5 DarkMagenta
6 3 Brown, DarkYellow
7 7 LightGray, LightGrey, Gray, Grey
8 0* DarkGray, DarkGrey
9 4* Blue, LightBlue
10 2* Green, LightGreen
11 6* Cyan, LightCyan
12 1* Red, LightRed
13 5* Magenta, LightMagenta
14 3* Yellow, LightYellow
15 7* White
The number under "NR-16" is used for 16-color terminals ('t_Co'
greater than or equal to 16). The number under "NR-8" is used for
8-color terminals ('t_Co' less than 16). The '*' indicates that the
bold attribute is set for ctermfg. In many 8-color terminals (e.g.,
"linux"), this causes the bright colors to appear. This doesn't work
for background colors! Without the '*' the bold attribute is removed.
If you want to set the bold attribute in a different way, put a
"cterm=" argument AFTER the "ctermfg=" or "ctermbg=" argument. Or use
a number instead of a color name.
The case of the color names is ignored, however Vim will use lower
case color names when reading from the v:colornames dictionary.
Note that for 16 color ansi style terminals (including xterms), the
numbers in the NR-8 column is used. Here '*' means 'add 8' so that
Blue is 12, DarkGray is 8 etc.
Note that for some color terminals these names may result in the wrong
colors!
You can also use "NONE" to remove the color.
:hi-normal-cterm
When setting the "ctermfg" or "ctermbg" colors for the Normal group,
these will become the colors used for the non-highlighted text.
Example:
:highlight Normal ctermfg=grey ctermbg=darkblue
When setting the "ctermbg" color for the Normal group, the
'background' option will be adjusted automatically, under the
condition that the color is recognized and 'background' was not set
explicitly. This causes the highlight groups that depend on
'background' to change! This means you should set the colors for
Normal first, before setting other colors.
When a color scheme is being used, changing 'background' causes it to
be reloaded, which may reset all colors (including Normal). First
delete the "g:colors_name" variable when you don't want this.
When you have set "ctermfg" or "ctermbg" for the Normal group, Vim
needs to reset the color when exiting. This is done with the "op"
termcap entry t_op. If this doesn't work correctly, try setting the
't_op' option in your .vimrc.
E419 E420 E453
When Vim knows the normal foreground, background and underline colors,
"fg", "bg" and "ul" can be used as color names. This only works after
setting the colors for the Normal group and for the MS-Windows
console. Example, for reverse video:
:highlight Visual ctermfg=bg ctermbg=fg
Note that the colors are used that are valid at the moment this
command is given. If the Normal group colors are changed later, the
"fg" and "bg" colors will not be adjusted.
ctermfont={font-nr} highlight-ctermfont
This gives the alternative font number to use in the terminal. The
available fonts depend on the terminal, and if the terminal is not set
up for alternative fonts this simply won't do anything. The range of
{font-nr} is 0-10 where 0 resets the font to the default font, 1-9
selects one of the 9 alternate fonts, and 10 selects the Fraktur font.
For more information see your terminal's handling of SGR parameters
10-20. t_CF
3. highlight arguments for the GUI
gui={attr-list} highlight-gui
These give the attributes to use in the GUI mode.
See attr-list for a description.
Note that "bold" can be used here and by using a bold font. They
have the same effect.
Note that the attributes are ignored for the "Normal" group.
font={font-name} highlight-font
font-name is the name of a font, as it is used on the system Vim
runs on. For X11 this is a complicated name, for example:
font=-misc-fixed-bold-r-normal--14-130-75-75-c-70-iso8859-1
The font-name "NONE" can be used to revert to the default font.
When setting the font for the "Normal" group, this becomes the default
font (until the 'guifont' option is changed; the last one set is
used).
The following only works with Motif, not with other GUIs:
When setting the font for the "Menu" group, the menus will be changed.
When setting the font for the "Tooltip" group, the tooltips will be
changed.
All fonts used, except for Menu and Tooltip, should be of the same
character size as the default font! Otherwise redrawing problems will
occur.
To use a font name with an embedded space or other special character,
put it in single quotes. The single quote cannot be used then.
Example:
:hi comment font='Monospace 10'
guifg={color-name} highlight-guifg
guibg={color-name} highlight-guibg
guisp={color-name} highlight-guisp
These give the foreground (guifg), background (guibg) and special
(guisp) color to use in the GUI. "guisp" is used for undercurl and
strikethrough.
There are a few special names:
NONE no color (transparent) E1361
bg use normal background color
background use normal background color
fg use normal foreground color
foreground use normal foreground color
To use a color name with an embedded space or other special character,
put it in single quotes. The single quote cannot be used then.
Example:
:hi comment guifg='salmon pink'
gui-colors
Suggested color names (these are available on most systems):
Red LightRed DarkRed
Green LightGreen DarkGreen SeaGreen
Blue LightBlue DarkBlue SlateBlue
Cyan LightCyan DarkCyan
Magenta LightMagenta DarkMagenta
Yellow LightYellow Brown DarkYellow
Gray LightGray DarkGray
Black White
Orange Purple Violet
In the Win32 GUI version, additional system colors are available. See
win32-colors.
You can also specify a color by its Red, Green and Blue values.
The format is "#rrggbb", where
"rr" is the Red value
"gg" is the Green value
"bb" is the Blue value
All values are hexadecimal, range from "00" to "ff". Examples:
:highlight Comment guifg=#11f0c3 guibg=#ff00ff
If you are authoring a color scheme and use the same hexadecimal value
repeatedly, you can define a (lower case) name for it in
v:colornames. For example:
# provide a default value for this color but allow the user to
# override it.
:call extend(v:colornames, {'alt_turquoise': '#11f0c3'}, 'keep')
:highlight Comment guifg=alt_turquoise guibg=magenta
If you are using a color scheme that relies on named colors and you
would like to adjust the precise appearance of those colors, you can
do so by overriding the values in v:colornames prior to loading the
scheme:
let v:colornames['alt_turquoise'] = '#22f0d3'
colorscheme alt
If you want to develop a color list that can be relied on by others,
it is best to prefix your color names. By convention these color lists
are placed in the colors/lists directory. You can see an example in
'$VIMRUNTIME/colors/lists/csscolors.vim'. This list would be sourced
by a color scheme using:
:runtime colors/lists/csscolors.vim
:highlight Comment guifg=css_turquoise
highlight-groups highlight-default
These are the default highlighting groups. These groups are used by the
'highlight' option default. Note that the highlighting depends on the value
of 'background'. You can see the current settings with the ":highlight"
command.
When possible the name is highlighted in the used colors. If this makes it
unreadable use Visual selection.
hl-ColorColumn
ColorColumn Used for the columns set with 'colorcolumn'.
hl-Conceal
Conceal Placeholder characters substituted for concealed
text (see 'conceallevel').
hl-Cursor hl-lCursor
Cursor Character under the cursor.
lCursor Character under the cursor when language-mapping
is used (see 'guicursor').
hl-CursorIM
CursorIM Like Cursor, but used when in IME mode. CursorIM
hl-CursorColumn
CursorColumn Screen column that the cursor is in when 'cursorcolumn' is set.
hl-CursorLine
CursorLine Screen line that the cursor is in when 'cursorline' is set.
hl-Directory
Directory Directory names (and other special names in listings).
hl-DiffAdd
DiffAdd Diff mode: Added line. diff.txt
hl-DiffChange
DiffChange Diff mode: Changed line. diff.txt
hl-DiffDelete
DiffDelete Diff mode: Deleted line. diff.txt
hl-DiffText
DiffText Diff mode: Changed text within a changed line. diff.txt
hl-EndOfBuffer
EndOfBuffer Filler lines (~) after the last line in the buffer.
By default, this is highlighted like hl-NonText.
hl-ErrorMsg
ErrorMsg Error messages on the command line.
hl-VertSplit
VertSplit Column separating vertically split windows.
hl-Folded
Folded Line used for closed folds.
hl-FoldColumn
FoldColumn 'foldcolumn'
hl-SignColumn
SignColumn Column where signs are displayed.
hl-IncSearch
IncSearch 'incsearch' highlighting; also used for the text replaced with
":s///c".
hl-LineNr
LineNr Line number for ":number" and ":#" commands, and when 'number'
or 'relativenumber' option is set.
hl-LineNrAbove
LineNrAbove Line number for when the 'relativenumber'
option is set, above the cursor line.
hl-LineNrBelow
LineNrBelow Line number for when the 'relativenumber'
option is set, below the cursor line.
hl-CursorLineNr
CursorLineNr Like LineNr when 'cursorline' is set and 'cursorlineopt'
contains "number" or is "both", for the cursor line.
hl-CursorLineFold
CursorLineFold Like FoldColumn when 'cursorline' is set for the cursor line.
hl-CursorLineSign
CursorLineSign Like SignColumn when 'cursorline' is set for the cursor line.
hl-MatchParen
MatchParen Character under the cursor or just before it, if it
is a paired bracket, and its match. pi_paren.txt
hl-MessageWindow
MessageWindow Messages popup window used by :echowindow. If not defined
hl-WarningMsg is used.
hl-ModeMsg
ModeMsg 'showmode' message (e.g., "-- INSERT --").
hl-MsgArea
MsgArea Command-line area, also used for outputting messages, see also
'cmdheight'
hl-MoreMsg
MoreMsg more-prompt
hl-NonText
NonText '@' at the end of the window, "<<<" at the start of the window
for 'smoothscroll', characters from 'showbreak' and other
characters that do not really exist in the text, such as the
">" displayed when a double-wide character doesn't fit at the
end of the line.
hl-Normal
Normal Normal text.
Pmenu Popup menu: Normal item.
PmenuSel Popup menu: Selected item.
PmenuKind Popup menu: Normal item "kind".
PmenuKindSel Popup menu: Selected item "kind".
PmenuExtra Popup menu: Normal item "extra text".
PmenuExtraSel Popup menu: Selected item "extra text".
PmenuSbar Popup menu: Scrollbar.
PmenuThumb Popup menu: Thumb of the scrollbar.
PmenuMatch Popup menu: Matched text in normal item.
PmenuMatchSel Popup menu: Matched text in selected item.
hl-ComplMatchIns
ComplMatchIns Matched text of the currently inserted completion.
PopupNotification
Popup window created with popup_notification(). If not
defined hl-WarningMsg is used.
hl-Question
Question hit-enter prompt and yes/no questions.
hl-QuickFixLine
QuickFixLine Current quickfix item in the quickfix window.
hl-Search
Search Last search pattern highlighting (see 'hlsearch').
Also used for similar items that need to stand out.
hl-CurSearch
CurSearch Current match for the last search pattern (see 'hlsearch').
Note: This is correct after a search, but may get outdated if
changes are made or the screen is redrawn.
hl-SpecialKey
SpecialKey Meta and special keys listed with ":map", also for text used
to show unprintable characters in the text, 'listchars'.
Generally: Text that is displayed differently from what it
really is.
hl-SpellBad
SpellBad Word that is not recognized by the spellchecker. spell
This will be combined with the highlighting used otherwise.
hl-SpellCap
SpellCap Word that should start with a capital. spell
This will be combined with the highlighting used otherwise.
hl-SpellLocal
SpellLocal Word that is recognized by the spellchecker as one that is
used in another region. spell
This will be combined with the highlighting used otherwise.
hl-SpellRare
SpellRare Word that is recognized by the spellchecker as one that is
hardly ever used. spell
This will be combined with the highlighting used otherwise.
hl-StatusLine
StatusLine Status line of current window.
hl-StatusLineNC
StatusLineNC status lines of not-current windows
Note: If this is equal to "StatusLine", Vim will use "^^^" in
the status line of the current window.
hl-StatusLineTerm
StatusLineTerm Status line of current window, if it is a terminal window.
hl-StatusLineTermNC
StatusLineTermNC Status lines of not-current windows that is a
terminal window.
hl-TabLine
TabLine Tab pages line, not active tab page label.
hl-TabLineFill
TabLineFill Tab pages line, where there are no labels.
hl-TabLineSel
TabLineSel Tab pages line, active tab page label.
hl-Terminal
Terminal terminal window (see terminal-size-color).
hl-Title
Title Titles for output from ":set all", ":autocmd" etc.
hl-Visual
Visual Visual mode selection.
hl-VisualNOS
VisualNOS Visual mode selection when vim is "Not Owning the Selection".
Only X11 Gui's gui-x11 and xterm-clipboard supports this.
hl-WarningMsg
WarningMsg Warning messages.
WildMenu Current match in 'wildmenu' completion.
hl-User1 hl-User1..9 hl-User9
The 'statusline' syntax allows the use of 9 different highlights in the
statusline and ruler (via 'rulerformat'). The names are User1 to User9.
For the GUI you can use the following groups to set the colors for the menu,
scrollbars and tooltips. They don't have defaults. This doesn't work for the
Win32 GUI. Only three highlight arguments have any effect here: font, guibg,
and guifg.
Menu Current font, background and foreground colors of the menus.
Also used for the toolbar.
Applicable highlight arguments: font, guibg, guifg.
NOTE: For Motif the font argument actually
specifies a fontset at all times, no matter if 'guifontset' is
empty, and as such it is tied to the current :language when
set.
hl-Scrollbar
Scrollbar Current background and foreground of the main window's
scrollbars.
Applicable highlight arguments: guibg, guifg.
hl-Tooltip
Tooltip Current font, background and foreground of the tooltips.
Applicable highlight arguments: font, guibg, guifg.
NOTE: For Motif the font argument actually
specifies a fontset at all times, no matter if 'guifontset' is
empty, and as such it is tied to the current :language when
set.
==============================================================================
15. Linking groups :hi-link :highlight-link E412 E413
When you want to use the same highlighting for several syntax groups, you
can do this more easily by linking the groups into one common highlight
group, and give the color attributes only for that group.
To set a link:
:hi[ghlight][!] [default] link {from-group} {to-group}
To remove a link:
:hi[ghlight][!] [default] link {from-group} NONE
Notes: E414
- If the {from-group} and/or {to-group} doesn't exist, it is created. You
don't get an error message for a non-existing group.
- As soon as you use a ":highlight" command for a linked group, the link is
removed.
- If there are already highlight settings for the {from-group}, the link is
not made, unless the '!' is given. For a ":highlight link" command in a
sourced file, you don't get an error message. This can be used to skip
links for groups that already have settings.
:hi-default :highlight-default
The [default] argument is used for setting the default highlighting for a
group. If highlighting has already been specified for the group the command
will be ignored. Also when there is an existing link.
Using [default] is especially useful to overrule the highlighting of a
specific syntax file. For example, the C syntax file contains:
:highlight default link cComment Comment
If you like Question highlighting for C comments, put this in your vimrc file:
:highlight link cComment Question
Without the "default" in the C syntax file, the highlighting would be
overruled when the syntax file is loaded.
To have a link survive `:highlight clear`, which is useful if you have
highlighting for a specific filetype and you want to keep it when selecting
another color scheme, put a command like this in the
"after/syntax/{filetype}.vim" file:
highlight! default link cComment Question
==============================================================================
16. Cleaning up :syn-clear E391
If you want to clear the syntax stuff for the current buffer, you can use this
command:
:syntax clear
This command should be used when you want to switch off syntax highlighting,
or when you want to switch to using another syntax. It's normally not needed
in a syntax file itself, because syntax is cleared by the autocommands that
load the syntax file.
The command also deletes the "b:current_syntax" variable, since no syntax is
loaded after this command.
To clean up specific syntax groups for the current buffer:
:syntax clear {group-name} ..
This removes all patterns and keywords for {group-name}.
To clean up specific syntax group lists for the current buffer:
:syntax clear @{grouplist-name} ..
This sets {grouplist-name}'s contents to an empty list.
:syntax-off :syn-off
If you want to disable syntax highlighting for all buffers, you need to remove
the autocommands that load the syntax files:
:syntax off
What this command actually does, is executing the command
:source $VIMRUNTIME/syntax/nosyntax.vim
See the "nosyntax.vim" file for details. Note that for this to work
$VIMRUNTIME must be valid. See $VIMRUNTIME.
:syntax-reset :syn-reset
If you have changed the colors and messed them up, use this command to get the
defaults back:
:syntax reset
It is a bit of a wrong name, since it does not reset any syntax items, it only
affects the highlighting.
This doesn't change the colors for the 'highlight' option.
Note that the syntax colors that you set in your vimrc file will also be reset
back to their Vim default.
Note that if you are using a color scheme, the colors defined by the color
scheme for syntax highlighting will be lost.
What this actually does is:
let g:syntax_cmd = "reset"
runtime! syntax/syncolor.vim
Note that this uses the 'runtimepath' option.
syncolor
If you want to use different colors for syntax highlighting, you can add a Vim
script file to set these colors. Put this file in a directory in
'runtimepath' which comes after $VIMRUNTIME, so that your settings overrule
the default colors. This way these colors will be used after the ":syntax
reset" command.
For Unix you can use the file ~/.vim/after/syntax/syncolor.vim. Example:
if &background == "light"
highlight comment ctermfg=darkgreen guifg=darkgreen
else
highlight comment ctermfg=green guifg=green
endif
E679
Do make sure this syncolor.vim script does not use a "syntax on", set the
'background' option or uses a "colorscheme" command, because it results in an
endless loop.
Note that when a color scheme is used, there might be some confusion whether
your defined colors are to be used or the colors from the scheme. This
depends on the color scheme file. See :colorscheme.
syntax_cmd
The "syntax_cmd" variable is set to one of these values when the
syntax/syncolor.vim files are loaded:
"on" `:syntax on` command. Highlight colors are overruled but
links are kept
"enable" `:syntax enable` command. Only define colors for groups that
don't have highlighting yet. Use `:highlight default` .
"reset" `:syntax reset` command or loading a color scheme. Define all
the colors.
"skip" Don't define colors. Used to skip the default settings when a
syncolor.vim file earlier in 'runtimepath' has already set
them.
==============================================================================
17. Highlighting tags tag-highlight
If you want to highlight all the tags in your file, you can use the following
mappings.
<F11> -- Generate tags.vim file, and highlight tags.
<F12> -- Just highlight tags based on existing tags.vim file.
:map <F11> :sp tags<CR>:%s/^\([^ :]*:\)\=\([^ ]*\).*/syntax keyword Tag \2/<CR>:wq! tags.vim<CR>/^<CR><F12>
:map <F12> :so tags.vim<CR>
WARNING: The longer the tags file, the slower this will be, and the more
memory Vim will consume.
Only highlighting typedefs, unions and structs can be done too. For this you
must use Universal Ctags (found at https://ctags.io) or Exuberant ctags (found
at http://ctags.sf.net).
Put these lines in your Makefile:
# Make a highlight file for types. Requires Universal/Exuberant ctags and awk
types: types.vim
types.vim: *.[ch]
ctags --c-kinds=gstu -o- *.[ch] |\
awk 'BEGIN{printf("syntax keyword Type\t")}\
{printf("%s ", $$1)}END{print ""}' > $@
And put these lines in your .vimrc:
" load the types.vim highlighting file, if it exists
autocmd BufRead,BufNewFile *.[ch] let fname = expand('<afile>:p:h') .. '/types.vim'
autocmd BufRead,BufNewFile *.[ch] if filereadable(fname)
autocmd BufRead,BufNewFile *.[ch] exe 'so ' .. fname
autocmd BufRead,BufNewFile *.[ch] endif
==============================================================================
18. Window-local syntax :ownsyntax
Normally all windows on a buffer share the same syntax settings. It is
possible, however, to set a particular window on a file to have its own
private syntax setting. A possible example would be to edit LaTeX source
with conventional highlighting in one window, while seeing the same source
highlighted differently (so as to hide control sequences and indicate bold,
italic etc regions) in another. The 'scrollbind' option is useful here.
To set the current window to have the syntax "foo", separately from all other
windows on the buffer:
:ownsyntax foo
w:current_syntax
This will set the "w:current_syntax" variable to "foo". The value of
"b:current_syntax" does not change. This is implemented by saving and
restoring "b:current_syntax", since the syntax files do set
"b:current_syntax". The value set by the syntax file is assigned to
"w:current_syntax".
Note: This resets the 'spell', 'spellcapcheck', 'spellfile' and 'spelloptions'
options.
Once a window has its own syntax, syntax commands executed from other windows
on the same buffer (including :syntax clear) have no effect. Conversely,
syntax commands executed from that window do not affect other windows on the
same buffer.
A window with its own syntax reverts to normal behavior when another buffer
is loaded into that window or the file is reloaded.
When splitting the window, the new window will use the original syntax.
==============================================================================
19. Color xterms xterm-color color-xterm
Most color xterms have only eight colors. If you don't get colors with the
default setup, it should work with these lines in your .vimrc:
:if &term =~ "xterm"
: if has("terminfo")
: set t_Co=8
: set t_Sf=<Esc>[3%p1%dm
: set t_Sb=<Esc>[4%p1%dm
: else
: set t_Co=8
: set t_Sf=<Esc>[3%dm
: set t_Sb=<Esc>[4%dm
: endif
:endif
[<Esc> is a real escape, type CTRL-V <Esc>]
You might want to change the first "if" to match the name of your terminal,
e.g. "dtterm" instead of "xterm".
Note: Do these settings BEFORE doing ":syntax on". Otherwise the colors may
be wrong.
xiterm rxvt
The above settings have been mentioned to work for xiterm and rxvt too.
But for using 16 colors in an rxvt these should work with terminfo:
:set t_AB=<Esc>[%?%p1%{8}%<%t25;%p1%{40}%+%e5;%p1%{32}%+%;%dm
:set t_AF=<Esc>[%?%p1%{8}%<%t22;%p1%{30}%+%e1;%p1%{22}%+%;%dm
colortest.vim
To test your color setup, a file has been included in the Vim distribution.
To use it, execute this command:
:runtime syntax/colortest.vim
Some versions of xterm (and other terminals, like the Linux console) can
output lighter foreground colors, even though the number of colors is defined
at 8. Therefore Vim sets the "cterm=bold" attribute for light foreground
colors, when 't_Co' is 8.
xfree-xterm
To get 16 colors or more, get the newest xterm version (which should be
included with XFree86 3.3 and later). You can also find the latest version
at:
http://invisible-island.net/xterm/xterm.html
Here is a good way to configure it. This uses 88 colors and enables the
termcap-query feature, which allows Vim to ask the xterm how many colors it
supports.
./configure --disable-bold-color --enable-88-color --enable-tcap-query
If you only get 8 colors, check the xterm compilation settings.
(Also see UTF8-xterm for using this xterm with UTF-8 character encoding).
This xterm should work with these lines in your .vimrc (for 16 colors):
:if has("terminfo")
: set t_Co=16
: set t_AB=<Esc>[%?%p1%{8}%<%t%p1%{40}%+%e%p1%{92}%+%;%dm
: set t_AF=<Esc>[%?%p1%{8}%<%t%p1%{30}%+%e%p1%{82}%+%;%dm
:else
: set t_Co=16
: set t_Sf=<Esc>[3%dm
: set t_Sb=<Esc>[4%dm
:endif
[<Esc> is a real escape, type CTRL-V <Esc>]
Without +terminfo, Vim will recognize these settings, and automatically
translate cterm colors of 8 and above to "<Esc>[9%dm" and "<Esc>[10%dm".
Colors above 16 are also translated automatically.
For 256 colors this has been reported to work:
:set t_AB=<Esc>[48;5;%dm
:set t_AF=<Esc>[38;5;%dm
Or just set the TERM environment variable to "xterm-color" or "xterm-16color"
and try if that works.
You probably want to use these X resources (in your ~/.Xdefaults file):
XTerm*color0: #000000
XTerm*color1: #c00000
XTerm*color2: #008000
XTerm*color3: #808000
XTerm*color4: #0000c0
XTerm*color5: #c000c0
XTerm*color6: #008080
XTerm*color7: #c0c0c0
XTerm*color8: #808080
XTerm*color9: #ff6060
XTerm*color10: #00ff00
XTerm*color11: #ffff00
XTerm*color12: #8080ff
XTerm*color13: #ff40ff
XTerm*color14: #00ffff
XTerm*color15: #ffffff
Xterm*cursorColor: Black
[Note: The cursorColor is required to work around a bug, which changes the
cursor color to the color of the last drawn text. This has been fixed by a
newer version of xterm, but not everybody is using it yet.]
To get these right away, reload the .Xdefaults file to the X Option database
Manager (you only need to do this when you just changed the .Xdefaults file):
xrdb -merge ~/.Xdefaults
xterm-blink xterm-blinking-cursor
To make the cursor blink in an xterm, see tools/blink.c. Or use Thomas
Dickey's xterm above patchlevel 107 (see above for where to get it), with
these resources:
XTerm*cursorBlink: on
XTerm*cursorOnTime: 400
XTerm*cursorOffTime: 250
XTerm*cursorColor: White
hpterm-color
These settings work (more or less) for an hpterm, which only supports 8
foreground colors:
:if has("terminfo")
: set t_Co=8
: set t_Sf=<Esc>[&v%p1%dS
: set t_Sb=<Esc>[&v7S
:else
: set t_Co=8
: set t_Sf=<Esc>[&v%dS
: set t_Sb=<Esc>[&v7S
:endif
[<Esc> is a real escape, type CTRL-V <Esc>]
Eterm enlightened-terminal
These settings have been reported to work for the Enlightened terminal
emulator, or Eterm. They might work for all xterm-like terminals that use the
bold attribute to get bright colors. Add an ":if" like above when needed.
:set t_Co=16
:set t_AF=^[[%?%p1%{8}%<%t3%p1%d%e%p1%{22}%+%d;1%;m
:set t_AB=^[[%?%p1%{8}%<%t4%p1%d%e%p1%{32}%+%d;1%;m
TTpro-telnet
These settings should work for TTpro telnet. Tera Term Pro is a freeware /
open-source program for MS-Windows.
set t_Co=16
set t_AB=^[[%?%p1%{8}%<%t%p1%{40}%+%e%p1%{32}%+5;%;%dm
set t_AF=^[[%?%p1%{8}%<%t%p1%{30}%+%e%p1%{22}%+1;%;%dm
Also make sure TTpro's Setup / Window / Full Color is enabled, and make sure
that Setup / Font / Enable Bold is NOT enabled.
(info provided by John Love-Jensen <eljay@Adobe.COM>)
==============================================================================
20. When syntax is slow :syntime
This is aimed at authors of a syntax file.
If your syntax causes redrawing to be slow, here are a few hints on making it
faster. To see slowness switch on some features that usually interfere, such
as 'relativenumber' and folding.
Note: This is only available when compiled with the +profile feature.
You many need to build Vim with "huge" features.
To find out what patterns are consuming most time, get an overview with this
sequence:
:syntime on
[ redraw the text at least once with CTRL-L ]
:syntime report
This will display a list of syntax patterns that were used, sorted by the time
it took to match them against the text.
:syntime on Start measuring syntax times. This will add some
overhead to compute the time spent on syntax pattern
matching.
:syntime off Stop measuring syntax times.
:syntime clear Set all the counters to zero, restart measuring.
:syntime report Show the syntax items used since ":syntime on" in the
current window. Use a wider display to see more of
the output.
The list is sorted by total time. The columns are:
TOTAL Total time in seconds spent on
matching this pattern.
COUNT Number of times the pattern was used.
MATCH Number of times the pattern actually
matched
SLOWEST The longest time for one try.
AVERAGE The average time for one try.
NAME Name of the syntax item. Note that
this is not unique.
PATTERN The pattern being used.
Pattern matching gets slow when it has to try many alternatives. Try to
include as much literal text as possible to reduce the number of ways a
pattern does NOT match.
When using the "\@<=" and "\@<!" items, add a maximum size to avoid trying at
all positions in the current and previous line. For example, if the item is
literal text specify the size of that text (in bytes):
"<\@<=span" Matches "span" in "<span". This tries matching with "<" in
many places.
"<\@1<=span" Matches the same, but only tries one byte before "span".
vim:tw=78:sw=4:ts=8:noet:ft=help:norl: