blob: ac155c81cac87d802cbf578322ba11b693c15ceb [file] [log] [blame]
Bram Moolenaarf193fff2006-04-27 00:02:13 +00001*syntax.txt* For Vim version 7.0f. Last change: 2006 Apr 26
Bram Moolenaar071d4272004-06-13 20:20:40 +00002
3
4 VIM REFERENCE MANUAL by Bram Moolenaar
5
6
7Syntax highlighting *syntax* *syntax-highlighting* *coloring*
8
9Syntax highlighting enables Vim to show parts of the text in another font or
10color. Those parts can be specific keywords or text matching a pattern. Vim
11doesn't parse the whole file (to keep it fast), so the highlighting has its
12limitations. Lexical highlighting might be a better name, but since everybody
13calls it syntax highlighting we'll stick with that.
14
15Vim supports syntax highlighting on all terminals. But since most ordinary
16terminals have very limited highlighting possibilities, it works best in the
17GUI version, gvim.
18
19In the User Manual:
20|usr_06.txt| introduces syntax highlighting.
21|usr_44.txt| introduces writing a syntax file.
22
231. Quick start |:syn-qstart|
242. Syntax files |:syn-files|
253. Syntax loading procedure |syntax-loading|
264. Syntax file remarks |:syn-file-remarks|
275. Defining a syntax |:syn-define|
286. :syntax arguments |:syn-arguments|
297. Syntax patterns |:syn-pattern|
308. Syntax clusters |:syn-cluster|
319. Including syntax files |:syn-include|
3210. Synchronizing |:syn-sync|
3311. Listing syntax items |:syntax|
3412. Highlight command |:highlight|
3513. Linking groups |:highlight-link|
3614. Cleaning up |:syn-clear|
3715. Highlighting tags |tag-highlight|
3816. Color xterms |xterm-color|
39
40{Vi does not have any of these commands}
41
42Syntax highlighting is not available when the |+syntax| feature has been
43disabled at compile time.
44
45==============================================================================
461. Quick start *:syn-qstart*
47
48 *:syn-enable* *:syntax-enable*
49This command switches on syntax highlighting: >
50
51 :syntax enable
52
53What this command actually does is to execute the command >
54 :source $VIMRUNTIME/syntax/syntax.vim
55
56If the VIM environment variable is not set, Vim will try to find
57the path in another way (see |$VIMRUNTIME|). Usually this works just
58fine. If it doesn't, try setting the VIM environment variable to the
59directory where the Vim stuff is located. For example, if your syntax files
60are in the "/usr/vim/vim50/syntax" directory, set $VIMRUNTIME to
61"/usr/vim/vim50". You must do this in the shell, before starting Vim.
62
63 *:syn-on* *:syntax-on*
64The ":syntax enable" command will keep your current color settings. This
65allows using ":highlight" commands to set your preferred colors before or
66after using this command. If you want Vim to overrule your settings with the
67defaults, use: >
68 :syntax on
69<
70 *:hi-normal* *:highlight-normal*
71If you are running in the GUI, you can get white text on a black background
72with: >
73 :highlight Normal guibg=Black guifg=White
74For a color terminal see |:hi-normal-cterm|.
75For setting up your own colors syntax highlighting see |syncolor|.
76
77NOTE: The syntax files on MS-DOS and Windows have lines that end in <CR><NL>.
78The files for Unix end in <NL>. This means you should use the right type of
79file for your system. Although on MS-DOS and Windows the right format is
80automatically selected if the 'fileformats' option is not empty.
81
82NOTE: When using reverse video ("gvim -fg white -bg black"), the default value
83of 'background' will not be set until the GUI window is opened, which is after
Bram Moolenaar910f66f2006-04-05 20:41:53 +000084reading the |gvimrc|. This will cause the wrong default highlighting to be
Bram Moolenaar071d4272004-06-13 20:20:40 +000085used. To set the default value of 'background' before switching on
Bram Moolenaar910f66f2006-04-05 20:41:53 +000086highlighting, include the ":gui" command in the |gvimrc|: >
Bram Moolenaar071d4272004-06-13 20:20:40 +000087
88 :gui " open window and set default for 'background'
89 :syntax on " start highlighting, use 'background' to set colors
90
Bram Moolenaar910f66f2006-04-05 20:41:53 +000091NOTE: Using ":gui" in the |gvimrc| means that "gvim -f" won't start in the
Bram Moolenaar071d4272004-06-13 20:20:40 +000092foreground! Use ":gui -f" then.
93
94
95You can toggle the syntax on/off with this command >
96 :if exists("syntax_on") | syntax off | else | syntax enable | endif
97
98To put this into a mapping, you can use: >
99 :map <F7> :if exists("syntax_on") <Bar>
100 \ syntax off <Bar>
101 \ else <Bar>
102 \ syntax enable <Bar>
103 \ endif <CR>
104[using the |<>| notation, type this literally]
105
106Details
107The ":syntax" commands are implemented by sourcing a file. To see exactly how
108this works, look in the file:
109 command file ~
110 :syntax enable $VIMRUNTIME/syntax/syntax.vim
111 :syntax on $VIMRUNTIME/syntax/syntax.vim
112 :syntax manual $VIMRUNTIME/syntax/manual.vim
113 :syntax off $VIMRUNTIME/syntax/nosyntax.vim
114Also see |syntax-loading|.
115
116==============================================================================
1172. Syntax files *:syn-files*
118
119The syntax and highlighting commands for one language are normally stored in
120a syntax file. The name convention is: "{name}.vim". Where {name} is the
121name of the language, or an abbreviation (to fit the name in 8.3 characters,
122a requirement in case the file is used on a DOS filesystem).
123Examples:
124 c.vim perl.vim java.vim html.vim
125 cpp.vim sh.vim csh.vim
126
127The syntax file can contain any Ex commands, just like a vimrc file. But
128the idea is that only commands for a specific language are included. When a
129language is a superset of another language, it may include the other one,
130for example, the cpp.vim file could include the c.vim file: >
131 :so $VIMRUNTIME/syntax/c.vim
132
133The .vim files are normally loaded with an autocommand. For example: >
134 :au Syntax c runtime! syntax/c.vim
135 :au Syntax cpp runtime! syntax/cpp.vim
136These commands are normally in the file $VIMRUNTIME/syntax/synload.vim.
137
138
139MAKING YOUR OWN SYNTAX FILES *mysyntaxfile*
140
141When you create your own syntax files, and you want to have Vim use these
142automatically with ":syntax enable", do this:
143
1441. Create your user runtime directory. You would normally use the first item
145 of the 'runtimepath' option. Example for Unix: >
146 mkdir ~/.vim
147
1482. Create a directory in there called "syntax". For Unix: >
149 mkdir ~/.vim/syntax
150
1513. Write the Vim syntax file. Or download one from the internet. Then write
152 it in your syntax directory. For example, for the "mine" syntax: >
153 :w ~/.vim/syntax/mine.vim
154
155Now you can start using your syntax file manually: >
156 :set syntax=mine
157You don't have to exit Vim to use this.
158
159If you also want Vim to detect the type of file, see |new-filetype|.
160
161If you are setting up a system with many users and you don't want each user
162to add the same syntax file, you can use another directory from 'runtimepath'.
163
164
165ADDING TO AN EXISTING SYNTAX FILE *mysyntaxfile-add*
166
167If you are mostly satisfied with an existing syntax file, but would like to
168add a few items or change the highlighting, follow these steps:
169
1701. Create your user directory from 'runtimepath', see above.
171
1722. Create a directory in there called "after/syntax". For Unix: >
173 mkdir ~/.vim/after
174 mkdir ~/.vim/after/syntax
175
1763. Write a Vim script that contains the commands you want to use. For
177 example, to change the colors for the C syntax: >
178 highlight cComment ctermfg=Green guifg=Green
179
1804. Write that file in the "after/syntax" directory. Use the name of the
181 syntax, with ".vim" added. For our C syntax: >
182 :w ~/.vim/after/syntax/c.vim
183
184That's it. The next time you edit a C file the Comment color will be
185different. You don't even have to restart Vim.
186
Bram Moolenaar5313dcb2005-02-22 08:56:13 +0000187If you have multiple files, you can use the filetype as the directory name.
188All the "*.vim" files in this directory will be used, for example:
189 ~/.vim/after/syntax/c/one.vim
190 ~/.vim/after/syntax/c/two.vim
191
Bram Moolenaar071d4272004-06-13 20:20:40 +0000192
193REPLACING AN EXISTING SYNTAX FILE *mysyntaxfile-replace*
194
195If you don't like a distributed syntax file, or you have downloaded a new
196version, follow the same steps as for |mysyntaxfile| above. Just make sure
197that you write the syntax file in a directory that is early in 'runtimepath'.
198Vim will only load the first syntax file found.
199
200
201NAMING CONVENTIONS
202 *group-name* *{group-name}* *E669* *W18*
203The name for a highlight or syntax group must consist of ASCII letters, digits
204and the underscore. As a regexp: "[a-zA-Z0-9_]*"
205
206To be able to allow each user to pick his favorite set of colors, there must
207be preferred names for highlight groups that are common for many languages.
208These are the suggested group names (if syntax highlighting works properly
209you can see the actual color, except for "Ignore"):
210
211 *Comment any comment
212
213 *Constant any constant
214 String a string constant: "this is a string"
215 Character a character constant: 'c', '\n'
216 Number a number constant: 234, 0xff
217 Boolean a boolean constant: TRUE, false
218 Float a floating point constant: 2.3e10
219
220 *Identifier any variable name
221 Function function name (also: methods for classes)
222
223 *Statement any statement
224 Conditional if, then, else, endif, switch, etc.
225 Repeat for, do, while, etc.
226 Label case, default, etc.
227 Operator "sizeof", "+", "*", etc.
228 Keyword any other keyword
229 Exception try, catch, throw
230
231 *PreProc generic Preprocessor
232 Include preprocessor #include
233 Define preprocessor #define
234 Macro same as Define
235 PreCondit preprocessor #if, #else, #endif, etc.
236
237 *Type int, long, char, etc.
238 StorageClass static, register, volatile, etc.
239 Structure struct, union, enum, etc.
240 Typedef A typedef
241
242 *Special any special symbol
243 SpecialChar special character in a constant
244 Tag you can use CTRL-] on this
245 Delimiter character that needs attention
246 SpecialComment special things inside a comment
247 Debug debugging statements
248
249 *Underlined text that stands out, HTML links
250
251 *Ignore left blank, hidden
252
253 *Error any erroneous construct
254
255 *Todo anything that needs extra attention; mostly the
256 keywords TODO FIXME and XXX
257
258The names marked with * are the preferred groups; the others are minor groups.
259For the preferred groups, the "syntax.vim" file contains default highlighting.
260The minor groups are linked to the preferred groups, so they get the same
261highlighting. You can override these defaults by using ":highlight" commands
262after sourcing the "syntax.vim" file.
263
264Note that highlight group names are not case sensitive. "String" and "string"
265can be used for the same group.
266
267The following names are reserved and cannot be used as a group name:
268 NONE ALL ALLBUT contains contained
269
270==============================================================================
2713. Syntax loading procedure *syntax-loading*
272
273This explains the details that happen when the command ":syntax enable" is
274issued. When Vim initializes itself, it finds out where the runtime files are
275located. This is used here as the variable |$VIMRUNTIME|.
276
277":syntax enable" and ":syntax on" do the following:
278
279 Source $VIMRUNTIME/syntax/syntax.vim
280 |
281 +- Clear out any old syntax by sourcing $VIMRUNTIME/syntax/nosyntax.vim
282 |
283 +- Source first syntax/synload.vim in 'runtimepath'
284 | |
285 | +- Setup the colors for syntax highlighting. If a color scheme is
286 | | defined it is loaded again with ":colors {name}". Otherwise
287 | | ":runtime! syntax/syncolor.vim" is used. ":syntax on" overrules
288 | | existing colors, ":syntax enable" only sets groups that weren't
289 | | set yet.
290 | |
291 | +- Set up syntax autocmds to load the appropriate syntax file when
292 | | the 'syntax' option is set. *synload-1*
293 | |
294 | +- Source the user's optional file, from the |mysyntaxfile| variable.
295 | This is for backwards compatibility with Vim 5.x only. *synload-2*
296 |
297 +- Do ":filetype on", which does ":runtime! filetype.vim". It loads any
298 | filetype.vim files found. It should always Source
299 | $VIMRUNTIME/filetype.vim, which does the following.
300 | |
301 | +- Install autocmds based on suffix to set the 'filetype' option
302 | | This is where the connection between file name and file type is
303 | | made for known file types. *synload-3*
304 | |
305 | +- Source the user's optional file, from the *myfiletypefile*
306 | | variable. This is for backwards compatibility with Vim 5.x only.
307 | | *synload-4*
308 | |
309 | +- Install one autocommand which sources scripts.vim when no file
310 | | type was detected yet. *synload-5*
311 | |
312 | +- Source $VIMRUNTIME/menu.vim, to setup the Syntax menu. |menu.vim|
313 |
314 +- Install a FileType autocommand to set the 'syntax' option when a file
315 | type has been detected. *synload-6*
316 |
317 +- Execute syntax autocommands to start syntax highlighting for each
318 already loaded buffer.
319
320
321Upon loading a file, Vim finds the relevant syntax file as follows:
322
323 Loading the file triggers the BufReadPost autocommands.
324 |
325 +- If there is a match with one of the autocommands from |synload-3|
326 | (known file types) or |synload-4| (user's file types), the 'filetype'
327 | option is set to the file type.
328 |
329 +- The autocommand at |synload-5| is triggered. If the file type was not
330 | found yet, then scripts.vim is searched for in 'runtimepath'. This
331 | should always load $VIMRUNTIME/scripts.vim, which does the following.
332 | |
333 | +- Source the user's optional file, from the *myscriptsfile*
334 | | variable. This is for backwards compatibility with Vim 5.x only.
335 | |
336 | +- If the file type is still unknown, check the contents of the file,
337 | again with checks like "getline(1) =~ pattern" as to whether the
338 | file type can be recognized, and set 'filetype'.
339 |
340 +- When the file type was determined and 'filetype' was set, this
341 | triggers the FileType autocommand |synload-6| above. It sets
342 | 'syntax' to the determined file type.
343 |
344 +- When the 'syntax' option was set above, this triggers an autocommand
345 | from |synload-1| (and |synload-2|). This find the main syntax file in
346 | 'runtimepath', with this command:
347 | runtime! syntax/<name>.vim
348 |
349 +- Any other user installed FileType or Syntax autocommands are
350 triggered. This can be used to change the highlighting for a specific
351 syntax.
352
353==============================================================================
3544. Syntax file remarks *:syn-file-remarks*
355
356 *b:current_syntax-variable*
357Vim stores the name of the syntax that has been loaded in the
358"b:current_syntax" variable. You can use this if you want to load other
359settings, depending on which syntax is active. Example: >
360 :au BufReadPost * if b:current_syntax == "csh"
361 :au BufReadPost * do-some-things
362 :au BufReadPost * endif
363
364
3652HTML *2html.vim* *convert-to-HTML*
366
367This is not a syntax file itself, but a script that converts the current
368window into HTML. Vim opens a new window in which it builds the HTML file.
369
370You are not supposed to set the 'filetype' or 'syntax' option to "2html"!
371Source the script to convert the current file: >
372
373 :runtime! syntax/2html.vim
374<
375Warning: This is slow!
376 *:TOhtml*
377Or use the ":TOhtml" user command. It is defined in a standard plugin.
378":TOhtml" also works with a range and in a Visual area: >
379
380 :10,40TOhtml
381
382After you save the resulting file, you can view it with any HTML viewer, such
383as Netscape. The colors should be exactly the same as you see them in Vim.
384
385To restrict the conversion to a range of lines set "html_start_line" and
386"html_end_line" to the first and last line to be converted. Example, using
387the last set Visual area: >
388
389 :let html_start_line = line("'<")
390 :let html_end_line = line("'>")
391
392The lines are numbered according to 'number' option and the Number
393highlighting. You can force lines to be numbered in the HTML output by
394setting "html_number_lines" to non-zero value: >
395 :let html_number_lines = 1
396Force to omit the line numbers by using a zero value: >
397 :let html_number_lines = 0
398Go back to the default to use 'number' by deleting the variable: >
399 :unlet html_number_lines
400
Bram Moolenaar7b0294c2004-10-11 10:16:09 +0000401Closed folds are put in the HTML as they are displayed. If you don't want
Bram Moolenaar488c6512005-08-11 20:09:58 +0000402this, use the |zR| command before invoking 2html, or use: >
Bram Moolenaarf4630b62005-05-20 21:31:17 +0000403 :let html_ignore_folding = 1
Bram Moolenaar7b0294c2004-10-11 10:16:09 +0000404
Bram Moolenaar071d4272004-06-13 20:20:40 +0000405By default, HTML optimized for old browsers is generated. If you prefer using
406cascading style sheets (CSS1) for the attributes (resulting in considerably
407shorter and valid HTML 4 file), use: >
408 :let html_use_css = 1
409
410By default "<pre>" and "</pre>" is used around the text. This makes it show
411up as you see it in Vim, but without wrapping. If you prefer wrapping, at the
412risk of making some things look a bit different, use: >
413 :let html_no_pre = 1
414This will use <br> at the end of each line and use "&nbsp;" for repeated
415spaces.
416
417The current value of 'encoding' is used to specify the charset of the HTML
418file. This only works for those values of 'encoding' that have an equivalent
419HTML charset name. To overrule this set g:html_use_encoding to the name of
420the charset to be used: >
421 :let html_use_encoding = "foobar"
422To omit the line that specifies the charset, set g:html_use_encoding to an
423empty string: >
424 :let html_use_encoding = ""
425To go back to the automatic mechanism, delete the g:html_use_encoding
426variable: >
427 :unlet html_use_encoding
428<
Bram Moolenaar47136d72004-10-12 20:02:24 +0000429For diff mode a sequence of more than 3 filler lines is displayed as three
430lines with the middle line mentioning the total number of inserted lines. If
431you prefer to see all the inserted lines use: >
432 :let html_whole_filler = 1
433And to go back to displaying up to three lines again: >
434 :unlet html_whole_filler
Bram Moolenaar488c6512005-08-11 20:09:58 +0000435<
Bram Moolenaar071d4272004-06-13 20:20:40 +0000436 *convert-to-XML* *convert-to-XHTML*
437An alternative is to have the script generate XHTML (XML compliant HTML). To
438do this set the "use_xhtml" variable: >
439 :let use_xhtml = 1
440To disable it again delete the variable: >
441 :unlet use_xhtml
442The generated XHTML file can be used in DocBook XML documents. See:
443 http://people.mech.kuleuven.ac.be/~pissaris/howto/src2db.html
444
445Remarks:
446- This only works in a version with GUI support. If the GUI is not actually
447 running (possible for X11) it still works, but not very well (the colors
448 may be wrong).
449- Older browsers will not show the background colors.
450- From most browsers you can also print the file (in color)!
451
452Here is an example how to run the script over all .c and .h files from a
453Unix shell: >
454 for f in *.[ch]; do gvim -f +"syn on" +"run! syntax/2html.vim" +"wq" +"q" $f; done
455<
456
Bram Moolenaarda2303d2005-08-30 21:55:26 +0000457ABEL *abel.vim* *ft-abel-syntax*
Bram Moolenaar071d4272004-06-13 20:20:40 +0000458
459ABEL highlighting provides some user-defined options. To enable them, assign
460any value to the respective variable. Example: >
461 :let abel_obsolete_ok=1
462To disable them use ":unlet". Example: >
463 :unlet abel_obsolete_ok
464
465Variable Highlight ~
466abel_obsolete_ok obsolete keywords are statements, not errors
467abel_cpp_comments_illegal do not interpret '//' as inline comment leader
468
469
Bram Moolenaarda2303d2005-08-30 21:55:26 +0000470ADA *ada.vim* *ft-ada-syntax*
Bram Moolenaar071d4272004-06-13 20:20:40 +0000471
472This mode is designed for the 1995 edition of Ada ("Ada95"), which
473includes support for objected-programming, protected types, and so on.
474It handles code written for the original Ada language
475("Ada83" or "Ada87") as well, though Ada83 code which uses Ada95-only
476keywords will be wrongly colored (such code should be fixed anyway).
477For more information about Ada, see http://www.adapower.com.
478
479The Ada mode handles a number of situations cleanly.
480For example, it knows that the "-" in "-5" is a number, but the same
481character in "A-5" is an operator. Normally, a "with" or "use" clause
482referencing another compilation unit is colored the same way as C's
483"#include" is colored. If you have "Conditional" or "Repeat"
484groups colored differently, then "end if" and "end loop" will be
485colored as part of those respective groups.
486You can set these to different colors using vim's "highlight" command
487(e.g., to change how loops are displayed, enter the command
488":hi Repeat" followed by the color specification; on simple terminals
489the color specification ctermfg=White often shows well).
490
491There are several options you can select in this Ada mode.
492To enable them, assign a value to the option. For example, to turn one on:
493 let ada_standard_types = 1
494To disable them use ":unlet". Example:
495 unlet ada_standard_types = 1
496You can just use ":" and type these into the command line to set these
497temporarily before loading an Ada file. You can make these option settings
498permanent by adding the "let" command(s), without a colon,
499to your "~/.vimrc" file.
500
501Here are the Ada mode options:
502
503Variable Action ~
504ada_standard_types Highlight types in package Standard (e.g., "Float")
505ada_space_errors Highlight extraneous errors in spaces...
506ada_no_trail_space_error but ignore trailing spaces at the end of a line
507ada_no_tab_space_error but ignore tabs after spaces
508ada_withuse_ordinary Show "with" and "use" as ordinary keywords
509 (when used to reference other compilation units
510 they're normally highlighted specially).
511ada_begin_preproc Show all begin-like keywords using the coloring
512 of C preprocessor commands.
513
514Even on a slow (90Mhz) PC this mode works quickly, but if you find
515the performance unacceptable, turn on ada_withuse_ordinary.
516
517
Bram Moolenaarda2303d2005-08-30 21:55:26 +0000518ANT *ant.vim* *ft-ant-syntax*
Bram Moolenaar071d4272004-06-13 20:20:40 +0000519
520The ant syntax file provides syntax highlighting for javascript and python
Bram Moolenaar13fcaaf2005-04-15 21:13:42 +0000521by default. Syntax highlighting for other script languages can be installed
Bram Moolenaar071d4272004-06-13 20:20:40 +0000522by the function AntSyntaxScript(), which takes the tag name as first argument
Bram Moolenaar13fcaaf2005-04-15 21:13:42 +0000523and the script syntax file name as second argument. Example: >
Bram Moolenaar071d4272004-06-13 20:20:40 +0000524
525 :call AntSyntaxScript('perl', 'perl.vim')
526
527will install syntax perl highlighting for the following ant code >
528
529 <script language = 'perl'><![CDATA[
530 # everything inside is highlighted as perl
531 ]]></script>
532
533See |mysyntaxfile-add| for installing script languages permanently.
534
535
Bram Moolenaarda2303d2005-08-30 21:55:26 +0000536APACHE *apache.vim* *ft-apache-syntax*
Bram Moolenaar071d4272004-06-13 20:20:40 +0000537
538The apache syntax file provides syntax highlighting depending on Apache HTTP
539server version, by default for 1.3.x. Set "apache_version" to Apache version
540(as a string) to get highlighting for another version. Example: >
541
542 :let apache_version = "2.0"
543<
544
545 *asm.vim* *asmh8300.vim* *nasm.vim* *masm.vim* *asm68k*
Bram Moolenaarda2303d2005-08-30 21:55:26 +0000546ASSEMBLY *ft-asm-syntax* *ft-asmh8300-syntax* *ft-nasm-syntax*
547 *ft-masm-syntax* *ft-asm68k-syntax* *fasm.vim*
Bram Moolenaar071d4272004-06-13 20:20:40 +0000548
549Files matching "*.i" could be Progress or Assembly. If the automatic detection
550doesn't work for you, or you don't edit Progress at all, use this in your
551startup vimrc: >
552 :let filetype_i = "asm"
553Replace "asm" with the type of assembly you use.
554
555There are many types of assembly languages that all use the same file name
556extensions. Therefore you will have to select the type yourself, or add a
557line in the assembly file that Vim will recognize. Currently these syntax
558files are included:
559 asm GNU assembly (the default)
560 asm68k Motorola 680x0 assembly
561 asmh8300 Hitachi H-8300 version of GNU assembly
562 ia64 Intel Itanium 64
563 fasm Flat assembly (http://flatassembler.net)
564 masm Microsoft assembly (probably works for any 80x86)
565 nasm Netwide assembly
566 tasm Turbo Assembly (with opcodes 80x86 up to Pentium, and
567 MMX)
568 pic PIC assembly (currently for PIC16F84)
569
570The most flexible is to add a line in your assembly file containing: >
571 :asmsyntax=nasm
572Replace "nasm" with the name of the real assembly syntax. This line must be
573one of the first five lines in the file.
574
575The syntax type can always be overruled for a specific buffer by setting the
576b:asmsyntax variable: >
577 :let b:asmsyntax=nasm
578
579If b:asmsyntax is not set, either automatically or by hand, then the value of
580the global variable asmsyntax is used. This can be seen as a default assembly
581language: >
582 :let asmsyntax=nasm
583
584As a last resort, if nothing is defined, the "asm" syntax is used.
585
586
587Netwide assembler (nasm.vim) optional highlighting ~
588
589To enable a feature: >
590 :let {variable}=1|set syntax=nasm
591To disable a feature: >
592 :unlet {variable} |set syntax=nasm
593
594Variable Highlight ~
595nasm_loose_syntax unofficial parser allowed syntax not as Error
596 (parser dependent; not recommended)
597nasm_ctx_outside_macro contexts outside macro not as Error
598nasm_no_warn potentially risky syntax not as ToDo
599
600
Bram Moolenaarda2303d2005-08-30 21:55:26 +0000601ASPPERL and ASPVBS *ft-aspperl-syntax* *ft-aspvbs-syntax*
Bram Moolenaar071d4272004-06-13 20:20:40 +0000602
603*.asp and *.asa files could be either Perl or Visual Basic script. Since it's
604hard to detect this you can set two global variables to tell Vim what you are
605using. For Perl script use: >
606 :let g:filetype_asa = "aspperl"
607 :let g:filetype_asp = "aspperl"
608For Visual Basic use: >
609 :let g:filetype_asa = "aspvbs"
610 :let g:filetype_asp = "aspvbs"
611
612
Bram Moolenaarf193fff2006-04-27 00:02:13 +0000613BAAN *baan.vim* *baan-syntax*
614
615The baan.vim gives syntax support for BaanC of release BaanIV upto SSA ERP LN
616for both 3 GL and 4 GL programming. Large number of standard defines/constants
617are supported.
618
619Some special violation of coding standards will be signalled when one specify
620in ones |.vimrc|: >
621 let baan_code_stds=1
622
623*baan-folding*
624
625Syntax folding can be enabled at various levels through the variables
626mentioned below (Set those in your |.vimrc|). The more complex folding on
627source blocks and SQL can be CPU intensive.
628
629To allow any folding and enable folding at function level use: >
630 let baan_fold=1
631Folding can be enabled at source block level as if, while, for ,... The
632indentation preceding the begin/end keywords has to match (spaces are not
633considered equal to a tab). >
634 let baan_fold_block=1
635Folding can be enabled for embedded SQL blocks as SELECT, SELECTDO,
636SELECTEMPTY, ... The indentation preceding the begin/end keywords has to
637match (spaces are not considered equal to a tab). >
638 let baan_fold_sql=1
639Note: Block folding can result in many small folds. It is suggested to |:set|
640the options 'foldminlines' and 'foldnestmax' in |.vimrc| or use |:setlocal| in
641.../after/syntax/baan.vim (see |after-directory|). Eg: >
642 set foldminlines=5
643 set foldnestmax=6
644
645
Bram Moolenaarda2303d2005-08-30 21:55:26 +0000646BASIC *basic.vim* *vb.vim* *ft-basic-syntax* *ft-vb-syntax*
Bram Moolenaar071d4272004-06-13 20:20:40 +0000647
648Both Visual Basic and "normal" basic use the extension ".bas". To detect
649which one should be used, Vim checks for the string "VB_Name" in the first
650five lines of the file. If it is not found, filetype will be "basic",
651otherwise "vb". Files with the ".frm" extension will always be seen as Visual
652Basic.
653
654
Bram Moolenaarda2303d2005-08-30 21:55:26 +0000655C *c.vim* *ft-c-syntax*
Bram Moolenaar071d4272004-06-13 20:20:40 +0000656
657A few things in C highlighting are optional. To enable them assign any value
658to the respective variable. Example: >
659 :let c_comment_strings=1
660To disable them use ":unlet". Example: >
661 :unlet c_comment_strings
662
663Variable Highlight ~
664c_gnu GNU gcc specific items
665c_comment_strings strings and numbers inside a comment
666c_space_errors trailing white space and spaces before a <Tab>
667c_no_trail_space_error ... but no trailing spaces
668c_no_tab_space_error ... but no spaces before a <Tab>
669c_no_bracket_error don't highlight {}; inside [] as errors
Bram Moolenaar677ee682005-01-27 14:41:15 +0000670c_no_curly_error don't highlight {}; inside [] and () as errors;
671 except { and } in first column
Bram Moolenaar071d4272004-06-13 20:20:40 +0000672c_no_ansi don't do standard ANSI types and constants
673c_ansi_typedefs ... but do standard ANSI types
674c_ansi_constants ... but do standard ANSI constants
675c_no_utf don't highlight \u and \U in strings
676c_syntax_for_h use C syntax for *.h files, instead of C++
677c_no_if0 don't highlight "#if 0" blocks as comments
678c_no_cformat don't highlight %-formats in strings
679c_no_c99 don't highlight C99 standard items
680
Bram Moolenaar293ee4d2004-12-09 21:34:53 +0000681When 'foldmethod' is set to "syntax" then /* */ comments and { } blocks will
682become a fold. If you don't want comments to become a fold use: >
683 :let c_no_comment_fold = 1
Bram Moolenaarf9393ef2006-04-24 19:47:27 +0000684"#if 0" blocks are also folded, unless: >
685 :let c_no_if0_fold = 1
Bram Moolenaar293ee4d2004-12-09 21:34:53 +0000686
Bram Moolenaar071d4272004-06-13 20:20:40 +0000687If you notice highlighting errors while scrolling backwards, which are fixed
688when redrawing with CTRL-L, try setting the "c_minlines" internal variable
689to a larger number: >
690 :let c_minlines = 100
691This will make the syntax synchronization start 100 lines before the first
692displayed line. The default value is 50 (15 when c_no_if0 is set). The
693disadvantage of using a larger number is that redrawing can become slow.
694
695When using the "#if 0" / "#endif" comment highlighting, notice that this only
696works when the "#if 0" is within "c_minlines" from the top of the window. If
697you have a long "#if 0" construct it will not be highlighted correctly.
698
699To match extra items in comments, use the cCommentGroup cluster.
700Example: >
701 :au Syntax c call MyCadd()
702 :function MyCadd()
703 : syn keyword cMyItem contained Ni
704 : syn cluster cCommentGroup add=cMyItem
705 : hi link cMyItem Title
706 :endfun
707
708ANSI constants will be highlighted with the "cConstant" group. This includes
709"NULL", "SIG_IGN" and others. But not "TRUE", for example, because this is
710not in the ANSI standard. If you find this confusing, remove the cConstant
711highlighting: >
712 :hi link cConstant NONE
713
714If you see '{' and '}' highlighted as an error where they are OK, reset the
715highlighting for cErrInParen and cErrInBracket.
716
717If you want to use folding in your C files, you can add these lines in a file
718an the "after" directory in 'runtimepath'. For Unix this would be
719~/.vim/after/syntax/c.vim. >
720 syn region myFold start="{" end="}" transparent fold
721 syn sync fromstart
722 set foldmethod=syntax
723
Bram Moolenaarda2303d2005-08-30 21:55:26 +0000724CH *ch.vim* *ft-ch-syntax*
Bram Moolenaard4755bb2004-09-02 19:12:26 +0000725
726C/C++ interpreter. Ch has similar syntax highlighting to C and builds upon
727the C syntax file. See |c.vim| for all the settings that are available for C.
728
729By setting a variable you can tell Vim to use Ch syntax for *.h files, instead
730of C or C++: >
731 :let ch_syntax_for_h = 1
732
Bram Moolenaar071d4272004-06-13 20:20:40 +0000733
Bram Moolenaarda2303d2005-08-30 21:55:26 +0000734CHILL *chill.vim* *ft-chill-syntax*
Bram Moolenaar071d4272004-06-13 20:20:40 +0000735
736Chill syntax highlighting is similar to C. See |c.vim| for all the settings
737that are available. Additionally there is:
738
Bram Moolenaar071d4272004-06-13 20:20:40 +0000739chill_space_errors like c_space_errors
740chill_comment_string like c_comment_strings
741chill_minlines like c_minlines
742
743
Bram Moolenaarda2303d2005-08-30 21:55:26 +0000744CHANGELOG *changelog.vim* *ft-changelog-syntax*
Bram Moolenaar071d4272004-06-13 20:20:40 +0000745
746ChangeLog supports highlighting spaces at the start of a line.
747If you do not like this, add following line to your .vimrc: >
748 let g:changelog_spacing_errors = 0
749This works the next time you edit a changelog file. You can also use
750"b:changelog_spacing_errors" to set this per buffer (before loading the syntax
751file).
752
753You can change the highlighting used, e.g., to flag the spaces as an error: >
754 :hi link ChangelogError Error
755Or to avoid the highlighting: >
756 :hi link ChangelogError NONE
757This works immediately.
758
759
Bram Moolenaarda2303d2005-08-30 21:55:26 +0000760COBOL *cobol.vim* *ft-cobol-syntax*
Bram Moolenaar071d4272004-06-13 20:20:40 +0000761
762COBOL highlighting has different needs for legacy code than it does for fresh
763development. This is due to differences in what is being done (maintenance
764versus development) and other factors. To enable legacy code highlighting,
765add this line to your .vimrc: >
766 :let cobol_legacy_code = 1
767To disable it again, use this: >
768 :unlet cobol_legacy_code
769
770
Bram Moolenaarda2303d2005-08-30 21:55:26 +0000771COLD FUSION *coldfusion.vim* *ft-coldfusion-syntax*
Bram Moolenaar071d4272004-06-13 20:20:40 +0000772
Bram Moolenaar13fcaaf2005-04-15 21:13:42 +0000773The ColdFusion has its own version of HTML comments. To turn on ColdFusion
Bram Moolenaar071d4272004-06-13 20:20:40 +0000774comment highlighting, add the following line to your startup file: >
775
776 :let html_wrong_comments = 1
777
778The ColdFusion syntax file is based on the HTML syntax file.
779
780
Bram Moolenaarda2303d2005-08-30 21:55:26 +0000781CSH *csh.vim* *ft-csh-syntax*
Bram Moolenaar071d4272004-06-13 20:20:40 +0000782
783This covers the shell named "csh". Note that on some systems tcsh is actually
784used.
785
786Detecting whether a file is csh or tcsh is notoriously hard. Some systems
787symlink /bin/csh to /bin/tcsh, making it almost impossible to distinguish
788between csh and tcsh. In case VIM guesses wrong you can set the
789"filetype_csh" variable. For using csh: >
790
791 :let filetype_csh = "csh"
792
793For using tcsh: >
794
795 :let filetype_csh = "tcsh"
796
797Any script with a tcsh extension or a standard tcsh filename (.tcshrc,
798tcsh.tcshrc, tcsh.login) will have filetype tcsh. All other tcsh/csh scripts
Bram Moolenaar13fcaaf2005-04-15 21:13:42 +0000799will be classified as tcsh, UNLESS the "filetype_csh" variable exists. If the
Bram Moolenaar071d4272004-06-13 20:20:40 +0000800"filetype_csh" variable exists, the filetype will be set to the value of the
801variable.
802
803
Bram Moolenaarda2303d2005-08-30 21:55:26 +0000804CYNLIB *cynlib.vim* *ft-cynlib-syntax*
Bram Moolenaar071d4272004-06-13 20:20:40 +0000805
806Cynlib files are C++ files that use the Cynlib class library to enable
Bram Moolenaar13fcaaf2005-04-15 21:13:42 +0000807hardware modelling and simulation using C++. Typically Cynlib files have a .cc
Bram Moolenaar071d4272004-06-13 20:20:40 +0000808or a .cpp extension, which makes it very difficult to distinguish them from a
Bram Moolenaar13fcaaf2005-04-15 21:13:42 +0000809normal C++ file. Thus, to enable Cynlib highlighting for .cc files, add this
Bram Moolenaar071d4272004-06-13 20:20:40 +0000810line to your .vimrc file: >
811
812 :let cynlib_cyntax_for_cc=1
813
814Similarly for cpp files (this extension is only usually used in Windows) >
815
816 :let cynlib_cyntax_for_cpp=1
817
818To disable these again, use this: >
819
820 :unlet cynlib_cyntax_for_cc
821 :unlet cynlib_cyntax_for_cpp
822<
823
Bram Moolenaarda2303d2005-08-30 21:55:26 +0000824CWEB *cweb.vim* *ft-cweb-syntax*
Bram Moolenaar071d4272004-06-13 20:20:40 +0000825
826Files matching "*.w" could be Progress or cweb. If the automatic detection
827doesn't work for you, or you don't edit Progress at all, use this in your
828startup vimrc: >
829 :let filetype_w = "cweb"
830
831
Bram Moolenaarda2303d2005-08-30 21:55:26 +0000832DESKTOP *desktop.vim* *ft-desktop-syntax*
Bram Moolenaar071d4272004-06-13 20:20:40 +0000833
834Primary goal of this syntax file is to highlight .desktop and .directory files
835according to freedesktop.org standard: http://pdx.freedesktop.org/Standards/
836But actually almost none implements this standard fully. Thus it will
Bram Moolenaar13fcaaf2005-04-15 21:13:42 +0000837highlight all Unix ini files. But you can force strict highlighting according
Bram Moolenaar071d4272004-06-13 20:20:40 +0000838to standard by placing this in your vimrc file: >
839 :let enforce_freedesktop_standard = 1
840
841
Bram Moolenaarda2303d2005-08-30 21:55:26 +0000842DIRCOLORS *dircolors.vim* *ft-dircolors-syntax*
Bram Moolenaar071d4272004-06-13 20:20:40 +0000843
844The dircolors utility highlighting definition has one option. It exists to
845provide compatibility with the Slackware GNU/Linux distributions version of
846the command. It adds a few keywords that are generally ignored by most
847versions. On Slackware systems, however, the utility accepts the keywords and
848uses them for processing. To enable the Slackware keywords add the following
849line to your startup file: >
850 let dircolors_is_slackware = 1
851
852
Bram Moolenaarda2303d2005-08-30 21:55:26 +0000853DOCBOOK *docbk.vim* *ft-docbk-syntax* *docbook*
854DOCBOOK XML *docbkxml.vim* *ft-docbkxml-syntax*
855DOCBOOK SGML *docbksgml.vim* *ft-docbksgml-syntax*
Bram Moolenaar071d4272004-06-13 20:20:40 +0000856
857There are two types of DocBook files: SGML and XML. To specify what type you
858are using the "b:docbk_type" variable should be set. Vim does this for you
859automatically if it can recognize the type. When Vim can't guess it the type
860defaults to XML.
861You can set the type manually: >
862 :let docbk_type = "sgml"
863or: >
864 :let docbk_type = "xml"
865You need to do this before loading the syntax file, which is complicated.
866Simpler is setting the filetype to "docbkxml" or "docbksgml": >
867 :set filetype=docbksgml
868or: >
869 :set filetype=docbkxml
870
871
Bram Moolenaarda2303d2005-08-30 21:55:26 +0000872DOSBATCH *dosbatch.vim* *ft-dosbatch-syntax*
Bram Moolenaar071d4272004-06-13 20:20:40 +0000873
874There is one option with highlighting DOS batch files. This covers new
875extensions to the Command Interpreter introduced with Windows 2000 and
876is controlled by the variable dosbatch_cmdextversion. For Windows NT
877this should have the value 1, and for Windows 2000 it should be 2.
878Select the version you want with the following line: >
879
Bram Moolenaar8299df92004-07-10 09:47:34 +0000880 :let dosbatch_cmdextversion = 1
Bram Moolenaar071d4272004-06-13 20:20:40 +0000881
882If this variable is not defined it defaults to a value of 2 to support
883Windows 2000.
884
Bram Moolenaar8299df92004-07-10 09:47:34 +0000885A second option covers whether *.btm files should be detected as type
Bram Moolenaar13fcaaf2005-04-15 21:13:42 +0000886"dosbatch" (MS-DOS batch files) or type "btm" (4DOS batch files). The latter
887is used by default. You may select the former with the following line: >
Bram Moolenaar8299df92004-07-10 09:47:34 +0000888
889 :let g:dosbatch_syntax_for_btm = 1
890
891If this variable is undefined or zero, btm syntax is selected.
892
893
Bram Moolenaar8cacf352006-04-15 20:27:24 +0000894DOXYGEN *doxygen.vim* *doxygen-syntax*
895
896Doxygen generates code documentation using a special documentation format
897(similar to Javadoc). This syntax script adds doxygen highlighting to c, cpp
898and idl files, and should also work with java.
899
900There are a few of ways to turn on doxygen formatting. It can be done explicity
901or in a modeline by appending '.doxygen' to the syntax of the file. Example: >
902 :set syntax=c.doxygen
903or >
904 // vim:syntax=c.doxygen
905
906To use doxygen formatting on top of any filetype, add the following to your
907.vimrc for each filetype, replacing {filetype} with the relevent value. >
908 :let g:syntax_extra_{filetype}='doxygen'
909
910It can also be done automaticly for c, cpp and idl files by setting the global
911or buffer-local variable load_doxygen_syntax. This is done by adding the
912following to your .vimrc. >
913 :let g:load_doxygen_syntax=1
914
915There are a couple of variables that have an affect on syntax highlighting, and
916are to do with non-standard highlighting options.
917
918Variable Default Effect ~
919g:doxygen_enhanced_color
920g:doxygen_enhanced_colour 0 Use non-standard highlighting for
921 doxygen comments.
922
923doxygen_my_rendering 0 Disable rendering of HTML bold, italic
924 and html_my_rendering underline.
925
926doxygen_javadoc_autobrief 1 Set to 0 to disable javadoc autobrief
927 colour highlighting.
928
929doxygen_end_punctuation '[.]' Set to regexp match for the ending
930 punctuation of brief
931
932There are also some hilight groups worth mentioning as they can be useful in
933configuration.
934
935Highlight Effect ~
936doxygenErrorComment The colour of an end-comment when missing
937 punctuation in a code, verbatim or dot section
938doxygenLinkError The colour of an end-comment when missing the
939 \endlink from a \link section.
940
Bram Moolenaar071d4272004-06-13 20:20:40 +0000941
Bram Moolenaarda2303d2005-08-30 21:55:26 +0000942DTD *dtd.vim* *ft-dtd-syntax*
Bram Moolenaar071d4272004-06-13 20:20:40 +0000943
Bram Moolenaar13fcaaf2005-04-15 21:13:42 +0000944The DTD syntax highlighting is case sensitive by default. To disable
Bram Moolenaar071d4272004-06-13 20:20:40 +0000945case-sensitive highlighting, add the following line to your startup file: >
946
947 :let dtd_ignore_case=1
948
Bram Moolenaar13fcaaf2005-04-15 21:13:42 +0000949The DTD syntax file will highlight unknown tags as errors. If
Bram Moolenaar071d4272004-06-13 20:20:40 +0000950this is annoying, it can be turned off by setting: >
951
952 :let dtd_no_tag_errors=1
953
954before sourcing the dtd.vim syntax file.
955Parameter entity names are highlighted in the definition using the
956'Type' highlighting group and 'Comment' for punctuation and '%'.
957Parameter entity instances are highlighted using the 'Constant'
958highlighting group and the 'Type' highlighting group for the
Bram Moolenaar13fcaaf2005-04-15 21:13:42 +0000959delimiters % and ;. This can be turned off by setting: >
Bram Moolenaar071d4272004-06-13 20:20:40 +0000960
961 :let dtd_no_param_entities=1
962
963The DTD syntax file is also included by xml.vim to highlight included dtd's.
964
965
Bram Moolenaarda2303d2005-08-30 21:55:26 +0000966EIFFEL *eiffel.vim* *ft-eiffel-syntax*
Bram Moolenaar071d4272004-06-13 20:20:40 +0000967
968While Eiffel is not case-sensitive, its style guidelines are, and the
Bram Moolenaar13fcaaf2005-04-15 21:13:42 +0000969syntax highlighting file encourages their use. This also allows to
970highlight class names differently. If you want to disable case-sensitive
Bram Moolenaar071d4272004-06-13 20:20:40 +0000971highlighting, add the following line to your startup file: >
972
973 :let eiffel_ignore_case=1
974
975Case still matters for class names and TODO marks in comments.
976
977Conversely, for even stricter checks, add one of the following lines: >
978
979 :let eiffel_strict=1
980 :let eiffel_pedantic=1
981
982Setting eiffel_strict will only catch improper capitalization for the
983five predefined words "Current", "Void", "Result", "Precursor", and
984"NONE", to warn against their accidental use as feature or class names.
985
986Setting eiffel_pedantic will enforce adherence to the Eiffel style
987guidelines fairly rigorously (like arbitrary mixes of upper- and
988lowercase letters as well as outdated ways to capitalize keywords).
989
990If you want to use the lower-case version of "Current", "Void",
991"Result", and "Precursor", you can use >
992
993 :let eiffel_lower_case_predef=1
994
995instead of completely turning case-sensitive highlighting off.
996
997Support for ISE's proposed new creation syntax that is already
998experimentally handled by some compilers can be enabled by: >
999
1000 :let eiffel_ise=1
1001
Bram Moolenaar13fcaaf2005-04-15 21:13:42 +00001002Finally, some vendors support hexadecimal constants. To handle them, add >
Bram Moolenaar071d4272004-06-13 20:20:40 +00001003
1004 :let eiffel_hex_constants=1
1005
1006to your startup file.
1007
1008
Bram Moolenaarda2303d2005-08-30 21:55:26 +00001009ERLANG *erlang.vim* *ft-erlang-syntax*
Bram Moolenaar071d4272004-06-13 20:20:40 +00001010
1011The erlang highlighting supports Erlang (ERicsson LANGuage).
1012Erlang is case sensitive and default extension is ".erl".
1013
1014If you want to disable keywords highlighting, put in your .vimrc: >
1015 :let erlang_keywords = 1
1016If you want to disable built-in-functions highlighting, put in your
1017.vimrc file: >
1018 :let erlang_functions = 1
1019If you want to disable special characters highlighting, put in
1020your .vimrc: >
1021 :let erlang_characters = 1
1022
1023
Bram Moolenaarda2303d2005-08-30 21:55:26 +00001024FORM *form.vim* *ft-form-syntax*
Bram Moolenaar071d4272004-06-13 20:20:40 +00001025
1026The coloring scheme for syntax elements in the FORM file uses the default
1027modes Conditional, Number, Statement, Comment, PreProc, Type, and String,
1028following the language specifications in 'Symbolic Manipulation with FORM'' by
1029J.A.M. Vermaseren, CAN, Netherlands, 1991.
1030
1031If you want include your own changes to the default colors, you have to
1032redefine the following syntax groups:
1033
1034 - formConditional
1035 - formNumber
1036 - formStatement
1037 - formHeaderStatement
1038 - formComment
1039 - formPreProc
1040 - formDirective
1041 - formType
1042 - formString
1043
1044Note that the form.vim syntax file implements FORM preprocessor commands and
1045directives per default in the same syntax group.
1046
1047A predefined enhanced color mode for FORM is available to distinguish between
Bram Moolenaar13fcaaf2005-04-15 21:13:42 +00001048header statements and statements in the body of a FORM program. To activate
Bram Moolenaar071d4272004-06-13 20:20:40 +00001049this mode define the following variable in your vimrc file >
1050
1051 :let form_enhanced_color=1
1052
1053The enhanced mode also takes advantage of additional color features for a dark
Bram Moolenaar13fcaaf2005-04-15 21:13:42 +00001054gvim display. Here, statements are colored LightYellow instead of Yellow, and
Bram Moolenaar071d4272004-06-13 20:20:40 +00001055conditionals are LightBlue for better distinction.
1056
1057
Bram Moolenaarda2303d2005-08-30 21:55:26 +00001058FORTRAN *fortran.vim* *ft-fortran-syntax*
Bram Moolenaar071d4272004-06-13 20:20:40 +00001059
1060Default highlighting and dialect ~
Bram Moolenaar13fcaaf2005-04-15 21:13:42 +00001061Highlighting appropriate for f95 (Fortran 95) is used by default. This choice
Bram Moolenaar071d4272004-06-13 20:20:40 +00001062should be appropriate for most users most of the time because Fortran 95 is a
1063superset of Fortran 90 and almost a superset of Fortran 77.
1064
1065Fortran source code form ~
Bram Moolenaar13fcaaf2005-04-15 21:13:42 +00001066Fortran 9x code can be in either fixed or free source form. Note that the
Bram Moolenaar071d4272004-06-13 20:20:40 +00001067syntax highlighting will not be correct if the form is incorrectly set.
1068
1069When you create a new fortran file, the syntax script assumes fixed source
Bram Moolenaar13fcaaf2005-04-15 21:13:42 +00001070form. If you always use free source form, then >
Bram Moolenaar071d4272004-06-13 20:20:40 +00001071 :let fortran_free_source=1
Bram Moolenaar13fcaaf2005-04-15 21:13:42 +00001072in your .vimrc prior to the :syntax on command. If you always use fixed source
Bram Moolenaar071d4272004-06-13 20:20:40 +00001073form, then >
1074 :let fortran_fixed_source=1
1075in your .vimrc prior to the :syntax on command.
1076
1077If the form of the source code depends upon the file extension, then it is
Bram Moolenaar13fcaaf2005-04-15 21:13:42 +00001078most convenient to set fortran_free_source in a ftplugin file. For more
1079information on ftplugin files, see |ftplugin|. For example, if all your
Bram Moolenaar071d4272004-06-13 20:20:40 +00001080fortran files with an .f90 extension are written in free source form and the
1081rest in fixed source form, add the following code to your ftplugin file >
1082 let s:extfname = expand("%:e")
1083 if s:extfname ==? "f90"
1084 let fortran_free_source=1
1085 unlet! fortran_fixed_source
1086 else
1087 let fortran_fixed_source=1
1088 unlet! fortran_free_source
1089 endif
1090Note that this will work only if the "filetype plugin indent on" command
1091precedes the "syntax on" command in your .vimrc file.
1092
1093When you edit an existing fortran file, the syntax script will assume free
1094source form if the fortran_free_source variable has been set, and assumes
Bram Moolenaar13fcaaf2005-04-15 21:13:42 +00001095fixed source form if the fortran_fixed_source variable has been set. If
Bram Moolenaar071d4272004-06-13 20:20:40 +00001096neither of these variables have been set, the syntax script attempts to
1097determine which source form has been used by examining the first five columns
Bram Moolenaar910f66f2006-04-05 20:41:53 +00001098of the first 250 lines of your file. If no signs of free source form are
Bram Moolenaar13fcaaf2005-04-15 21:13:42 +00001099detected, then the file is assumed to be in fixed source form. The algorithm
1100should work in the vast majority of cases. In some cases, such as a file that
Bram Moolenaar910f66f2006-04-05 20:41:53 +00001101begins with 250 or more full-line comments, the script may incorrectly decide
Bram Moolenaar13fcaaf2005-04-15 21:13:42 +00001102that the fortran code is in fixed form. If that happens, just add a
Bram Moolenaar071d4272004-06-13 20:20:40 +00001103non-comment statement beginning anywhere in the first five columns of the
1104first twenty five lines, save (:w) and then reload (:e!) the file.
1105
1106Tabs in fortran files ~
Bram Moolenaar13fcaaf2005-04-15 21:13:42 +00001107Tabs are not recognized by the Fortran standards. Tabs are not a good idea in
Bram Moolenaar071d4272004-06-13 20:20:40 +00001108fixed format fortran source code which requires fixed column boundaries.
Bram Moolenaar13fcaaf2005-04-15 21:13:42 +00001109Therefore, tabs are marked as errors. Nevertheless, some programmers like
1110using tabs. If your fortran files contain tabs, then you should set the
Bram Moolenaar071d4272004-06-13 20:20:40 +00001111variable fortran_have_tabs in your .vimrc with a command such as >
1112 :let fortran_have_tabs=1
Bram Moolenaar13fcaaf2005-04-15 21:13:42 +00001113placed prior to the :syntax on command. Unfortunately, the use of tabs will
Bram Moolenaar071d4272004-06-13 20:20:40 +00001114mean that the syntax file will not be able to detect incorrect margins.
1115
1116Syntax folding of fortran files ~
1117If you wish to use foldmethod=syntax, then you must first set the variable
1118fortran_fold with a command such as >
1119 :let fortran_fold=1
1120to instruct the syntax script to define fold regions for program units, that
1121is main programs starting with a program statement, subroutines, function
Bram Moolenaar13fcaaf2005-04-15 21:13:42 +00001122subprograms, block data subprograms, interface blocks, and modules. If you
Bram Moolenaar071d4272004-06-13 20:20:40 +00001123also set the variable fortran_fold_conditionals with a command such as >
1124 :let fortran_fold_conditionals=1
1125then fold regions will also be defined for do loops, if blocks, and select
Bram Moolenaar13fcaaf2005-04-15 21:13:42 +00001126case constructs. If you also set the variable
Bram Moolenaar071d4272004-06-13 20:20:40 +00001127fortran_fold_multilinecomments with a command such as >
1128 :let fortran_fold_multilinecomments=1
1129then fold regions will also be defined for three or more consecutive comment
Bram Moolenaar13fcaaf2005-04-15 21:13:42 +00001130lines. Note that defining fold regions can be slow for large files.
Bram Moolenaar071d4272004-06-13 20:20:40 +00001131
1132If fortran_fold, and possibly fortran_fold_conditionals and/or
1133fortran_fold_multilinecomments, have been set, then vim will fold your file if
Bram Moolenaar13fcaaf2005-04-15 21:13:42 +00001134you set foldmethod=syntax. Comments or blank lines placed between two program
Bram Moolenaar071d4272004-06-13 20:20:40 +00001135units are not folded because they are seen as not belonging to any program
1136unit.
1137
1138More precise fortran syntax ~
1139If you set the variable fortran_more_precise with a command such as >
1140 :let fortran_more_precise=1
Bram Moolenaar13fcaaf2005-04-15 21:13:42 +00001141then the syntax coloring will be more precise but slower. In particular,
Bram Moolenaar071d4272004-06-13 20:20:40 +00001142statement labels used in do, goto and arithmetic if statements will be
1143recognized, as will construct names at the end of a do, if, select or forall
1144construct.
1145
1146Non-default fortran dialects ~
1147The syntax script supports five Fortran dialects: f95, f90, f77, the Lahey
1148subset elf90, and the Imagine1 subset F.
1149
1150If you use f77 with extensions, even common ones like do/enddo loops, do/while
1151loops and free source form that are supported by most f77 compilers including
1152g77 (GNU Fortran), then you will probably find the default highlighting
Bram Moolenaar13fcaaf2005-04-15 21:13:42 +00001153satisfactory. However, if you use strict f77 with no extensions, not even free
Bram Moolenaar071d4272004-06-13 20:20:40 +00001154source form or the MIL STD 1753 extensions, then the advantages of setting the
1155dialect to f77 are that names such as SUM are recognized as user variable
1156names and not highlighted as f9x intrinsic functions, that obsolete constructs
1157such as ASSIGN statements are not highlighted as todo items, and that fixed
1158source form will be assumed.
1159
1160If you use elf90 or F, the advantage of setting the dialect appropriately is
1161that f90 features excluded from these dialects will be highlighted as todo
1162items and that free source form will be assumed as required for these
1163dialects.
1164
Bram Moolenaar13fcaaf2005-04-15 21:13:42 +00001165The dialect can be selected by setting the variable fortran_dialect. The
Bram Moolenaar071d4272004-06-13 20:20:40 +00001166permissible values of fortran_dialect are case-sensitive and must be "f95",
Bram Moolenaar13fcaaf2005-04-15 21:13:42 +00001167"f90", "f77", "elf" or "F". Invalid values of fortran_dialect are ignored.
Bram Moolenaar071d4272004-06-13 20:20:40 +00001168
1169If all your fortran files use the same dialect, set fortran_dialect in your
Bram Moolenaar13fcaaf2005-04-15 21:13:42 +00001170.vimrc prior to your syntax on statement. If the dialect depends upon the file
1171extension, then it is most convenient to set it in a ftplugin file. For more
1172information on ftplugin files, see |ftplugin|. For example, if all your
Bram Moolenaar071d4272004-06-13 20:20:40 +00001173fortran files with an .f90 extension are written in the elf subset, your
1174ftplugin file should contain the code >
1175 let s:extfname = expand("%:e")
1176 if s:extfname ==? "f90"
1177 let fortran_dialect="elf"
1178 else
1179 unlet! fortran_dialect
1180 endif
1181Note that this will work only if the "filetype plugin indent on" command
1182precedes the "syntax on" command in your .vimrc file.
1183
1184Finer control is necessary if the file extension does not uniquely identify
Bram Moolenaar13fcaaf2005-04-15 21:13:42 +00001185the dialect. You can override the default dialect, on a file-by-file basis, by
Bram Moolenaar071d4272004-06-13 20:20:40 +00001186including a comment with the directive "fortran_dialect=xx" (where xx=f77 or
Bram Moolenaar13fcaaf2005-04-15 21:13:42 +00001187elf or F or f90 or f95) in one of the first three lines in your file. For
Bram Moolenaar071d4272004-06-13 20:20:40 +00001188example, your older .f files may be written in extended f77 but your newer
1189ones may be F codes, and you would identify the latter by including in the
1190first three lines of those files a Fortran comment of the form >
1191 ! fortran_dialect=F
1192F overrides elf if both directives are present.
1193
1194Limitations ~
Bram Moolenaar13fcaaf2005-04-15 21:13:42 +00001195Parenthesis checking does not catch too few closing parentheses. Hollerith
1196strings are not recognized. Some keywords may be highlighted incorrectly
Bram Moolenaar071d4272004-06-13 20:20:40 +00001197because Fortran90 has no reserved words.
1198
Bram Moolenaarda2303d2005-08-30 21:55:26 +00001199For further information related to fortran, see |ft-fortran-indent| and
1200|ft-fortran-plugin|.
Bram Moolenaar071d4272004-06-13 20:20:40 +00001201
1202
Bram Moolenaarda2303d2005-08-30 21:55:26 +00001203FVWM CONFIGURATION FILES *fvwm.vim* *ft-fvwm-syntax*
Bram Moolenaar071d4272004-06-13 20:20:40 +00001204
1205In order for Vim to recognize Fvwm configuration files that do not match
1206the patterns *fvwmrc* or *fvwm2rc* , you must put additional patterns
1207appropriate to your system in your myfiletypes.vim file. For these
1208patterns, you must set the variable "b:fvwm_version" to the major version
1209number of Fvwm, and the 'filetype' option to fvwm.
1210
1211For example, to make Vim identify all files in /etc/X11/fvwm2/
1212as Fvwm2 configuration files, add the following: >
1213
1214 :au! BufNewFile,BufRead /etc/X11/fvwm2/* let b:fvwm_version = 2 |
1215 \ set filetype=fvwm
1216
1217If you'd like Vim to highlight all valid color names, tell it where to
1218find the color database (rgb.txt) on your system. Do this by setting
1219"rgb_file" to its location. Assuming your color database is located
1220in /usr/X11/lib/X11/, you should add the line >
1221
1222 :let rgb_file = "/usr/X11/lib/X11/rgb.txt"
1223
1224to your .vimrc file.
1225
1226
Bram Moolenaarda2303d2005-08-30 21:55:26 +00001227GSP *gsp.vim* *ft-gsp-syntax*
Bram Moolenaar071d4272004-06-13 20:20:40 +00001228
1229The default coloring style for GSP pages is defined by |html.vim|, and
1230the coloring for java code (within java tags or inline between backticks)
1231is defined by |java.vim|. The following HTML groups defined in |html.vim|
1232are redefined to incorporate and highlight inline java code:
1233
1234 htmlString
1235 htmlValue
1236 htmlEndTag
1237 htmlTag
1238 htmlTagN
1239
1240Highlighting should look fine most of the places where you'd see inline
1241java code, but in some special cases it may not. To add another HTML
1242group where you will have inline java code where it does not highlight
1243correctly, just copy the line you want from |html.vim| and add gspJava
1244to the contains clause.
1245
1246The backticks for inline java are highlighted according to the htmlError
1247group to make them easier to see.
1248
1249
Bram Moolenaarda2303d2005-08-30 21:55:26 +00001250GROFF *groff.vim* *ft-groff-syntax*
Bram Moolenaar071d4272004-06-13 20:20:40 +00001251
1252The groff syntax file is a wrapper for |nroff.vim|, see the notes
Bram Moolenaar13fcaaf2005-04-15 21:13:42 +00001253under that heading for examples of use and configuration. The purpose
Bram Moolenaar071d4272004-06-13 20:20:40 +00001254of this wrapper is to set up groff syntax extensions by setting the
1255filetype from a |modeline| or in a personal filetype definitions file
1256(see |filetype.txt|).
1257
1258
Bram Moolenaarda2303d2005-08-30 21:55:26 +00001259HASKELL *haskell.vim* *lhaskell.vim* *ft-haskell-syntax*
Bram Moolenaar071d4272004-06-13 20:20:40 +00001260
1261The Haskell syntax files support plain Haskell code as well as literate
Bram Moolenaar13fcaaf2005-04-15 21:13:42 +00001262Haskell code, the latter in both Bird style and TeX style. The Haskell
Bram Moolenaar071d4272004-06-13 20:20:40 +00001263syntax highlighting will also highlight C preprocessor directives.
1264
1265If you want to highlight delimiter characters (useful if you have a
1266light-coloured background), add to your .vimrc: >
1267 :let hs_highlight_delimiters = 1
1268To treat True and False as keywords as opposed to ordinary identifiers,
1269add: >
1270 :let hs_highlight_boolean = 1
1271To also treat the names of primitive types as keywords: >
1272 :let hs_highlight_types = 1
1273And to treat the names of even more relatively common types as keywords: >
1274 :let hs_highlight_more_types = 1
1275If you want to highlight the names of debugging functions, put in
1276your .vimrc: >
1277 :let hs_highlight_debug = 1
1278
1279The Haskell syntax highlighting also highlights C preprocessor
1280directives, and flags lines that start with # but are not valid
Bram Moolenaar13fcaaf2005-04-15 21:13:42 +00001281directives as erroneous. This interferes with Haskell's syntax for
1282operators, as they may start with #. If you want to highlight those
Bram Moolenaar071d4272004-06-13 20:20:40 +00001283as operators as opposed to errors, put in your .vimrc: >
1284 :let hs_allow_hash_operator = 1
1285
1286The syntax highlighting for literate Haskell code will try to
1287automatically guess whether your literate Haskell code contains
1288TeX markup or not, and correspondingly highlight TeX constructs
Bram Moolenaar13fcaaf2005-04-15 21:13:42 +00001289or nothing at all. You can override this globally by putting
Bram Moolenaar071d4272004-06-13 20:20:40 +00001290in your .vimrc >
1291 :let lhs_markup = none
1292for no highlighting at all, or >
1293 :let lhs_markup = tex
1294to force the highlighting to always try to highlight TeX markup.
1295For more flexibility, you may also use buffer local versions of
1296this variable, so e.g. >
1297 :let b:lhs_markup = tex
Bram Moolenaar13fcaaf2005-04-15 21:13:42 +00001298will force TeX highlighting for a particular buffer. It has to be
Bram Moolenaar071d4272004-06-13 20:20:40 +00001299set before turning syntax highlighting on for the buffer or
1300loading a file.
1301
1302
Bram Moolenaarda2303d2005-08-30 21:55:26 +00001303HTML *html.vim* *ft-html-syntax*
Bram Moolenaar071d4272004-06-13 20:20:40 +00001304
1305The coloring scheme for tags in the HTML file works as follows.
1306
1307The <> of opening tags are colored differently than the </> of a closing tag.
1308This is on purpose! For opening tags the 'Function' color is used, while for
1309closing tags the 'Type' color is used (See syntax.vim to check how those are
1310defined for you)
1311
1312Known tag names are colored the same way as statements in C. Unknown tag
1313names are colored with the same color as the <> or </> respectively which
1314makes it easy to spot errors
1315
Bram Moolenaar13fcaaf2005-04-15 21:13:42 +00001316Note that the same is true for argument (or attribute) names. Known attribute
Bram Moolenaar071d4272004-06-13 20:20:40 +00001317names are colored differently than unknown ones.
1318
Bram Moolenaar13fcaaf2005-04-15 21:13:42 +00001319Some HTML tags are used to change the rendering of text. The following tags
Bram Moolenaar071d4272004-06-13 20:20:40 +00001320are recognized by the html.vim syntax coloring file and change the way normal
1321text is shown: <B> <I> <U> <EM> <STRONG> (<EM> is used as an alias for <I>,
1322while <STRONG> as an alias for <B>), <H1> - <H6>, <HEAD>, <TITLE> and <A>, but
Bram Moolenaar13fcaaf2005-04-15 21:13:42 +00001323only if used as a link (that is, it must include a href as in
Bram Moolenaar071d4272004-06-13 20:20:40 +00001324<A href="somfile.html">).
1325
1326If you want to change how such text is rendered, you must redefine the
1327following syntax groups:
1328
1329 - htmlBold
1330 - htmlBoldUnderline
1331 - htmlBoldUnderlineItalic
1332 - htmlUnderline
1333 - htmlUnderlineItalic
1334 - htmlItalic
1335 - htmlTitle for titles
1336 - htmlH1 - htmlH6 for headings
1337
1338To make this redefinition work you must redefine them all with the exception
1339of the last two (htmlTitle and htmlH[1-6], which are optional) and define the
1340following variable in your vimrc (this is due to the order in which the files
1341are read during initialization) >
1342 :let html_my_rendering=1
1343
1344If you'd like to see an example download mysyntax.vim at
1345http://www.fleiner.com/vim/download.html
1346
1347You can also disable this rendering by adding the following line to your
1348vimrc file: >
1349 :let html_no_rendering=1
1350
1351HTML comments are rather special (see an HTML reference document for the
1352details), and the syntax coloring scheme will highlight all errors.
1353However, if you prefer to use the wrong style (starts with <!-- and
1354ends with --!>) you can define >
1355 :let html_wrong_comments=1
1356
1357JavaScript and Visual Basic embedded inside HTML documents are highlighted as
1358'Special' with statements, comments, strings and so on colored as in standard
Bram Moolenaar13fcaaf2005-04-15 21:13:42 +00001359programming languages. Note that only JavaScript and Visual Basic are currently
Bram Moolenaar071d4272004-06-13 20:20:40 +00001360supported, no other scripting language has been added yet.
1361
1362Embedded and inlined cascading style sheets (CSS) are highlighted too.
1363
Bram Moolenaar13fcaaf2005-04-15 21:13:42 +00001364There are several html preprocessor languages out there. html.vim has been
1365written such that it should be trivial to include it. To do so add the
Bram Moolenaar071d4272004-06-13 20:20:40 +00001366following two lines to the syntax coloring file for that language
1367(the example comes from the asp.vim file):
1368
1369 runtime! syntax/html.vim
1370 syn cluster htmlPreproc add=asp
1371
1372Now you just need to make sure that you add all regions that contain
1373the preprocessor language to the cluster htmlPreproc.
1374
1375
Bram Moolenaarda2303d2005-08-30 21:55:26 +00001376HTML/OS (by Aestiva) *htmlos.vim* *ft-htmlos-syntax*
Bram Moolenaar071d4272004-06-13 20:20:40 +00001377
1378The coloring scheme for HTML/OS works as follows:
1379
1380Functions and variable names are the same color by default, because VIM
1381doesn't specify different colors for Functions and Identifiers. To change
1382this (which is recommended if you want function names to be recognizable in a
1383different color) you need to add the following line to either your ~/.vimrc: >
1384 :hi Function term=underline cterm=bold ctermfg=LightGray
1385
1386Of course, the ctermfg can be a different color if you choose.
1387
1388Another issues that HTML/OS runs into is that there is no special filetype to
1389signify that it is a file with HTML/OS coding. You can change this by opening
1390a file and turning on HTML/OS syntax by doing the following: >
1391 :set syntax=htmlos
1392
1393Lastly, it should be noted that the opening and closing characters to begin a
1394block of HTML/OS code can either be << or [[ and >> or ]], respectively.
1395
1396
Bram Moolenaarda2303d2005-08-30 21:55:26 +00001397IA64 *ia64.vim* *intel-itanium* *ft-ia64-syntax*
Bram Moolenaar071d4272004-06-13 20:20:40 +00001398
1399Highlighting for the Intel Itanium 64 assembly language. See |asm.vim| for
1400how to recognize this filetype.
1401
1402To have *.inc files be recognized as IA64, add this to your .vimrc file: >
1403 :let g:filetype_inc = "ia64"
1404
1405
Bram Moolenaarda2303d2005-08-30 21:55:26 +00001406INFORM *inform.vim* *ft-inform-syntax*
Bram Moolenaar071d4272004-06-13 20:20:40 +00001407
1408Inform highlighting includes symbols provided by the Inform Library, as
1409most programs make extensive use of it. If do not wish Library symbols
1410to be highlighted add this to your vim startup: >
1411 :let inform_highlight_simple=1
1412
1413By default it is assumed that Inform programs are Z-machine targeted,
1414and highlights Z-machine assembly language symbols appropriately. If
1415you intend your program to be targeted to a Glulx/Glk environment you
1416need to add this to your startup sequence: >
1417 :let inform_highlight_glulx=1
1418
1419This will highlight Glulx opcodes instead, and also adds glk() to the
1420set of highlighted system functions.
1421
1422The Inform compiler will flag certain obsolete keywords as errors when
1423it encounters them. These keywords are normally highlighted as errors
1424by Vim. To prevent such error highlighting, you must add this to your
1425startup sequence: >
1426 :let inform_suppress_obsolete=1
1427
1428By default, the language features highlighted conform to Compiler
1429version 6.30 and Library version 6.11. If you are using an older
1430Inform development environment, you may with to add this to your
1431startup sequence: >
1432 :let inform_highlight_old=1
1433
Bram Moolenaar9e54a0e2006-04-14 20:42:25 +00001434IDL *idl.vim* *idl-syntax*
1435
1436IDL (Interface Definition Language) files are used to define RPC calls. In
1437Microsoft land, this is also used for defining COM interfaces and calls.
1438
1439IDL's structure is simple enough to permit a full grammar based approach to
1440rather than using a few heuristics. The result is large and somewhat
1441repetative but seems to work.
1442
1443There are some Microsoft extensions to idl files that are here. Some of them
1444are disabled by defining idl_no_ms_extensions.
1445
1446The more complex of the extensions are disabled by defining idl_no_extensions.
1447
1448Variable Effect ~
1449
1450idl_no_ms_extensions Disable some of the Microsoft specific
1451 extensions
1452idl_no_extensions Disable complex extensions
1453idlsyntax_showerror Show IDL errors (can be rather intrusive, but
1454 quite helpful)
1455idlsyntax_showerror_soft Use softer colours by default for errors
1456
Bram Moolenaar071d4272004-06-13 20:20:40 +00001457
Bram Moolenaarda2303d2005-08-30 21:55:26 +00001458JAVA *java.vim* *ft-java-syntax*
Bram Moolenaar071d4272004-06-13 20:20:40 +00001459
1460The java.vim syntax highlighting file offers several options:
1461
1462In Java 1.0.2 it was never possible to have braces inside parens, so this was
1463flagged as an error. Since Java 1.1 this is possible (with anonymous
Bram Moolenaar13fcaaf2005-04-15 21:13:42 +00001464classes), and therefore is no longer marked as an error. If you prefer the old
Bram Moolenaar071d4272004-06-13 20:20:40 +00001465way, put the following line into your vim startup file: >
1466 :let java_mark_braces_in_parens_as_errors=1
1467
1468All identifiers in java.lang.* are always visible in all classes. To
1469highlight them use: >
1470 :let java_highlight_java_lang_ids=1
1471
Bram Moolenaar13fcaaf2005-04-15 21:13:42 +00001472You can also highlight identifiers of most standard Java packages if you
Bram Moolenaar071d4272004-06-13 20:20:40 +00001473download the javaid.vim script at http://www.fleiner.com/vim/download.html.
1474If you prefer to only highlight identifiers of a certain package, say java.io
1475use the following: >
1476 :let java_highlight_java_io=1
1477Check the javaid.vim file for a list of all the packages that are supported.
1478
1479Function names are not highlighted, as the way to find functions depends on
Bram Moolenaar13fcaaf2005-04-15 21:13:42 +00001480how you write Java code. The syntax file knows two possible ways to highlight
Bram Moolenaar071d4272004-06-13 20:20:40 +00001481functions:
1482
1483If you write function declarations that are always indented by either
1484a tab, 8 spaces or 2 spaces you may want to set >
1485 :let java_highlight_functions="indent"
1486However, if you follow the Java guidelines about how functions and classes are
1487supposed to be named (with respect to upper and lowercase), use >
1488 :let java_highlight_functions="style"
1489If both options do not work for you, but you would still want function
1490declarations to be highlighted create your own definitions by changing the
1491definitions in java.vim or by creating your own java.vim which includes the
1492original one and then adds the code to highlight functions.
1493
Bram Moolenaar13fcaaf2005-04-15 21:13:42 +00001494In Java 1.1 the functions System.out.println() and System.err.println() should
Bram Moolenaared203462004-06-16 11:19:22 +00001495only be used for debugging. Therefore it is possible to highlight debugging
Bram Moolenaar13fcaaf2005-04-15 21:13:42 +00001496statements differently. To do this you must add the following definition in
Bram Moolenaar071d4272004-06-13 20:20:40 +00001497your startup file: >
1498 :let java_highlight_debug=1
1499The result will be that those statements are highlighted as 'Special'
Bram Moolenaar13fcaaf2005-04-15 21:13:42 +00001500characters. If you prefer to have them highlighted differently you must define
Bram Moolenaar071d4272004-06-13 20:20:40 +00001501new highlightings for the following groups.:
1502 Debug, DebugSpecial, DebugString, DebugBoolean, DebugType
1503which are used for the statement itself, special characters used in debug
Bram Moolenaar13fcaaf2005-04-15 21:13:42 +00001504strings, strings, boolean constants and types (this, super) respectively. I
Bram Moolenaar071d4272004-06-13 20:20:40 +00001505have opted to chose another background for those statements.
1506
1507In order to help you to write code that can be easily ported between
Bram Moolenaar13fcaaf2005-04-15 21:13:42 +00001508Java and C++, all C++ keywords are marked as error in a Java program.
Bram Moolenaar071d4272004-06-13 20:20:40 +00001509However, if you use them regularly, you may want to define the following
1510variable in your .vimrc file: >
1511 :let java_allow_cpp_keywords=1
1512
Bram Moolenaar13fcaaf2005-04-15 21:13:42 +00001513Javadoc is a program that takes special comments out of Java program files and
1514creates HTML pages. The standard configuration will highlight this HTML code
1515similarly to HTML files (see |html.vim|). You can even add Javascript
1516and CSS inside this code (see below). There are four differences however:
Bram Moolenaar071d4272004-06-13 20:20:40 +00001517 1. The title (all characters up to the first '.' which is followed by
1518 some white space or up to the first '@') is colored differently (to change
1519 the color change the group CommentTitle).
1520 2. The text is colored as 'Comment'.
1521 3. HTML comments are colored as 'Special'
Bram Moolenaar13fcaaf2005-04-15 21:13:42 +00001522 4. The special Javadoc tags (@see, @param, ...) are highlighted as specials
Bram Moolenaar071d4272004-06-13 20:20:40 +00001523 and the argument (for @see, @param, @exception) as Function.
1524To turn this feature off add the following line to your startup file: >
1525 :let java_ignore_javadoc=1
1526
Bram Moolenaar13fcaaf2005-04-15 21:13:42 +00001527If you use the special Javadoc comment highlighting described above you
1528can also turn on special highlighting for Javascript, visual basic
1529scripts and embedded CSS (stylesheets). This makes only sense if you
1530actually have Javadoc comments that include either Javascript or embedded
1531CSS. The options to use are >
Bram Moolenaar071d4272004-06-13 20:20:40 +00001532 :let java_javascript=1
1533 :let java_css=1
1534 :let java_vb=1
1535
1536In order to highlight nested parens with different colors define colors
1537for javaParen, javaParen1 and javaParen2, for example with >
1538 :hi link javaParen Comment
1539or >
1540 :hi javaParen ctermfg=blue guifg=#0000ff
1541
1542If you notice highlighting errors while scrolling backwards, which are fixed
1543when redrawing with CTRL-L, try setting the "java_minlines" internal variable
1544to a larger number: >
1545 :let java_minlines = 50
1546This will make the syntax synchronization start 50 lines before the first
1547displayed line. The default value is 10. The disadvantage of using a larger
1548number is that redrawing can become slow.
1549
1550
Bram Moolenaarda2303d2005-08-30 21:55:26 +00001551LACE *lace.vim* *ft-lace-syntax*
Bram Moolenaar071d4272004-06-13 20:20:40 +00001552
1553Lace (Language for Assembly of Classes in Eiffel) is case insensitive, but the
1554style guide lines are not. If you prefer case insensitive highlighting, just
1555define the vim variable 'lace_case_insensitive' in your startup file: >
1556 :let lace_case_insensitive=1
1557
1558
Bram Moolenaarda2303d2005-08-30 21:55:26 +00001559LEX *lex.vim* *ft-lex-syntax*
Bram Moolenaar071d4272004-06-13 20:20:40 +00001560
1561Lex uses brute-force synchronizing as the "^%%$" section delimiter
1562gives no clue as to what section follows. Consequently, the value for >
1563 :syn sync minlines=300
1564may be changed by the user if s/he is experiencing synchronization
1565difficulties (such as may happen with large lex files).
1566
1567
Bram Moolenaara5fac542005-10-12 20:58:49 +00001568LISP *lisp.vim* *ft-lisp-syntax*
1569
1570The lisp syntax highlighting provides two options: >
1571
1572 g:lisp_instring : if it exists, then "(...)" strings are highlighted
1573 as if the contents of the string were lisp.
1574 Useful for AutoLisp.
1575 g:lisp_rainbow : if it exists and is nonzero, then differing levels
1576 of parenthesization will receive different
1577 highlighting.
1578<
1579The g:lisp_rainbow option provides 10 levels of individual colorization for
1580the parentheses and backquoted parentheses. Because of the quantity of
1581colorization levels, unlike non-rainbow highlighting, the rainbow mode
1582specifies its highlighting using ctermfg and guifg, thereby bypassing the
1583usual colorscheme control using standard highlighting groups. The actual
1584highlighting used depends on the dark/bright setting (see |'bg'|).
1585
1586
Bram Moolenaarda2303d2005-08-30 21:55:26 +00001587LITE *lite.vim* *ft-lite-syntax*
Bram Moolenaar071d4272004-06-13 20:20:40 +00001588
1589There are two options for the lite syntax highlighting.
1590
1591If you like SQL syntax highlighting inside Strings, use this: >
1592
1593 :let lite_sql_query = 1
1594
1595For syncing, minlines defaults to 100. If you prefer another value, you can
1596set "lite_minlines" to the value you desire. Example: >
1597
1598 :let lite_minlines = 200
1599
1600
Bram Moolenaarda2303d2005-08-30 21:55:26 +00001601LPC *lpc.vim* *ft-lpc-syntax*
Bram Moolenaar071d4272004-06-13 20:20:40 +00001602
Bram Moolenaar13fcaaf2005-04-15 21:13:42 +00001603LPC stands for a simple, memory-efficient language: Lars Pensj| C. The
Bram Moolenaar071d4272004-06-13 20:20:40 +00001604file name of LPC is usually *.c. Recognizing these files as LPC would bother
1605users writing only C programs. If you want to use LPC syntax in Vim, you
1606should set a variable in your .vimrc file: >
1607
1608 :let lpc_syntax_for_c = 1
1609
1610If it doesn't work properly for some particular C or LPC files, use a
1611modeline. For a LPC file:
1612
1613 // vim:set ft=lpc:
1614
1615For a C file that is recognized as LPC:
1616
1617 // vim:set ft=c:
1618
1619If you don't want to set the variable, use the modeline in EVERY LPC file.
1620
1621There are several implementations for LPC, we intend to support most widely
Bram Moolenaar13fcaaf2005-04-15 21:13:42 +00001622used ones. Here the default LPC syntax is for MudOS series, for MudOS v22
Bram Moolenaar071d4272004-06-13 20:20:40 +00001623and before, you should turn off the sensible modifiers, and this will also
1624asserts the new efuns after v22 to be invalid, don't set this variable when
1625you are using the latest version of MudOS: >
1626
1627 :let lpc_pre_v22 = 1
1628
1629For LpMud 3.2 series of LPC: >
1630
1631 :let lpc_compat_32 = 1
1632
1633For LPC4 series of LPC: >
1634
1635 :let lpc_use_lpc4_syntax = 1
1636
1637For uLPC series of LPC:
1638uLPC has been developed to Pike, so you should use Pike syntax
1639instead, and the name of your source file should be *.pike
1640
1641
Bram Moolenaarda2303d2005-08-30 21:55:26 +00001642LUA *lua.vim* *ft-lua-syntax*
Bram Moolenaar071d4272004-06-13 20:20:40 +00001643
Bram Moolenaarfc1421e2006-04-20 22:17:20 +00001644This syntax file may be used for Lua 4.0, Lua 5.0 or Lua 5.1 (the latter is
1645the default). You can select one of these versions using the global variables
1646lua_version and lua_subversion. For example, to activate Lua
16474.0 syntax highlighting, use this command: >
Bram Moolenaar071d4272004-06-13 20:20:40 +00001648
1649 :let lua_version = 4
1650
Bram Moolenaarfc1421e2006-04-20 22:17:20 +00001651If you are using Lua 5.0, use these commands: >
1652
1653 :let lua_version = 5
1654 :let lua_subversion = 0
1655
1656To restore highlighting for Lua 5.1: >
1657
1658 :let lua_version = 5
1659 :let lua_subversion = 1
Bram Moolenaar071d4272004-06-13 20:20:40 +00001660
1661
Bram Moolenaarda2303d2005-08-30 21:55:26 +00001662MAIL *mail.vim* *ft-mail.vim*
Bram Moolenaar071d4272004-06-13 20:20:40 +00001663
1664Vim highlights all the standard elements of an email (headers, signatures,
Bram Moolenaar13fcaaf2005-04-15 21:13:42 +00001665quoted text and URLs / email addresses). In keeping with standard conventions,
Bram Moolenaar071d4272004-06-13 20:20:40 +00001666signatures begin in a line containing only "--" followed optionally by
1667whitespaces and end with a newline.
1668
1669Vim treats lines beginning with ']', '}', '|', '>' or a word followed by '>'
Bram Moolenaar13fcaaf2005-04-15 21:13:42 +00001670as quoted text. However Vim highlights headers and signatures in quoted text
Bram Moolenaar071d4272004-06-13 20:20:40 +00001671only if the text is quoted with '>' (optionally followed by one space).
1672
1673By default mail.vim synchronises syntax to 100 lines before the first
Bram Moolenaar13fcaaf2005-04-15 21:13:42 +00001674displayed line. If you have a slow machine, and generally deal with emails
Bram Moolenaar071d4272004-06-13 20:20:40 +00001675with short headers, you can change this to a smaller value: >
1676
1677 :let mail_minlines = 30
1678
1679
Bram Moolenaarda2303d2005-08-30 21:55:26 +00001680MAKE *make.vim* *ft-make-syntax*
Bram Moolenaar071d4272004-06-13 20:20:40 +00001681
1682In makefiles, commands are usually highlighted to make it easy for you to spot
1683errors. However, this may be too much coloring for you. You can turn this
1684feature off by using: >
1685
1686 :let make_no_commands = 1
1687
1688
Bram Moolenaarda2303d2005-08-30 21:55:26 +00001689MAPLE *maple.vim* *ft-maple-syntax*
Bram Moolenaar071d4272004-06-13 20:20:40 +00001690
1691Maple V, by Waterloo Maple Inc, supports symbolic algebra. The language
1692supports many packages of functions which are selectively loaded by the user.
1693The standard set of packages' functions as supplied in Maple V release 4 may be
1694highlighted at the user's discretion. Users may place in their .vimrc file: >
1695
1696 :let mvpkg_all= 1
1697
1698to get all package functions highlighted, or users may select any subset by
1699choosing a variable/package from the table below and setting that variable to
17001, also in their .vimrc file (prior to sourcing
1701$VIMRUNTIME/syntax/syntax.vim).
1702
1703 Table of Maple V Package Function Selectors >
1704 mv_DEtools mv_genfunc mv_networks mv_process
1705 mv_Galois mv_geometry mv_numapprox mv_simplex
1706 mv_GaussInt mv_grobner mv_numtheory mv_stats
1707 mv_LREtools mv_group mv_orthopoly mv_student
1708 mv_combinat mv_inttrans mv_padic mv_sumtools
1709 mv_combstruct mv_liesymm mv_plots mv_tensor
1710 mv_difforms mv_linalg mv_plottools mv_totorder
1711 mv_finance mv_logic mv_powseries
1712
1713
Bram Moolenaarda2303d2005-08-30 21:55:26 +00001714MATHEMATICA *mma.vim* *ft-mma-syntax* *ft-mathematica-syntax*
Bram Moolenaar34cdc3e2005-05-18 22:24:46 +00001715
1716Empty *.m files will automatically be presumed to be Matlab files unless you
1717have the following in your .vimrc: >
1718
1719 let filetype_m = "mma"
1720
1721
Bram Moolenaarda2303d2005-08-30 21:55:26 +00001722MOO *moo.vim* *ft-moo-syntax*
Bram Moolenaar071d4272004-06-13 20:20:40 +00001723
1724If you use C-style comments inside expressions and find it mangles your
1725highlighting, you may want to use extended (slow!) matches for C-style
1726comments: >
1727
1728 :let moo_extended_cstyle_comments = 1
1729
1730To disable highlighting of pronoun substitution patterns inside strings: >
1731
1732 :let moo_no_pronoun_sub = 1
1733
1734To disable highlighting of the regular expression operator '%|', and matching
1735'%(' and '%)' inside strings: >
1736
1737 :let moo_no_regexp = 1
1738
1739Unmatched double quotes can be recognized and highlighted as errors: >
1740
1741 :let moo_unmatched_quotes = 1
1742
1743To highlight builtin properties (.name, .location, .programmer etc.): >
1744
1745 :let moo_builtin_properties = 1
1746
Bram Moolenaar13fcaaf2005-04-15 21:13:42 +00001747Unknown builtin functions can be recognized and highlighted as errors. If you
Bram Moolenaar071d4272004-06-13 20:20:40 +00001748use this option, add your own extensions to the mooKnownBuiltinFunction group.
1749To enable this option: >
1750
1751 :let moo_unknown_builtin_functions = 1
1752
1753An example of adding sprintf() to the list of known builtin functions: >
1754
1755 :syn keyword mooKnownBuiltinFunction sprintf contained
1756
1757
Bram Moolenaarda2303d2005-08-30 21:55:26 +00001758MSQL *msql.vim* *ft-msql-syntax*
Bram Moolenaar071d4272004-06-13 20:20:40 +00001759
1760There are two options for the msql syntax highlighting.
1761
1762If you like SQL syntax highlighting inside Strings, use this: >
1763
1764 :let msql_sql_query = 1
1765
1766For syncing, minlines defaults to 100. If you prefer another value, you can
1767set "msql_minlines" to the value you desire. Example: >
1768
1769 :let msql_minlines = 200
1770
1771
Bram Moolenaarda2303d2005-08-30 21:55:26 +00001772NCF *ncf.vim* *ft-ncf-syntax*
Bram Moolenaar071d4272004-06-13 20:20:40 +00001773
1774There is one option for NCF syntax highlighting.
1775
1776If you want to have unrecognized (by ncf.vim) statements highlighted as
1777errors, use this: >
1778
1779 :let ncf_highlight_unknowns = 1
1780
1781If you don't want to highlight these errors, leave it unset.
1782
1783
Bram Moolenaarda2303d2005-08-30 21:55:26 +00001784NROFF *nroff.vim* *ft-nroff-syntax*
Bram Moolenaar071d4272004-06-13 20:20:40 +00001785
1786The nroff syntax file works with AT&T n/troff out of the box. You need to
1787activate the GNU groff extra features included in the syntax file before you
1788can use them.
1789
1790For example, Linux and BSD distributions use groff as their default text
Bram Moolenaar13fcaaf2005-04-15 21:13:42 +00001791processing package. In order to activate the extra syntax highlighting
Bram Moolenaar071d4272004-06-13 20:20:40 +00001792features for groff, add the following option to your start-up files: >
1793
1794 :let b:nroff_is_groff = 1
1795
1796Groff is different from the old AT&T n/troff that you may still find in
1797Solaris. Groff macro and request names can be longer than 2 characters and
1798there are extensions to the language primitives. For example, in AT&T troff
Bram Moolenaar13fcaaf2005-04-15 21:13:42 +00001799you access the year as a 2-digit number with the request \(yr. In groff you
Bram Moolenaar071d4272004-06-13 20:20:40 +00001800can use the same request, recognized for compatibility, or you can use groff's
1801native syntax, \[yr]. Furthermore, you can use a 4-digit year directly:
1802\[year]. Macro requests can be longer than 2 characters, for example, GNU mm
1803accepts the requests ".VERBON" and ".VERBOFF" for creating verbatim
1804environments.
1805
1806In order to obtain the best formatted output g/troff can give you, you should
1807follow a few simple rules about spacing and punctuation.
1808
18091. Do not leave empty spaces at the end of lines.
1810
18112. Leave one space and one space only after an end-of-sentence period,
1812 exclamation mark, etc.
1813
18143. For reasons stated below, it is best to follow all period marks with a
1815 carriage return.
1816
1817The reason behind these unusual tips is that g/n/troff have a line breaking
1818algorithm that can be easily upset if you don't follow the rules given above.
1819
1820Unlike TeX, troff fills text line-by-line, not paragraph-by-paragraph and,
1821furthermore, it does not have a concept of glue or stretch, all horizontal and
1822vertical space input will be output as is.
1823
1824Therefore, you should be careful about not using more space between sentences
1825than you intend to have in your final document. For this reason, the common
1826practice is to insert a carriage return immediately after all punctuation
Bram Moolenaar13fcaaf2005-04-15 21:13:42 +00001827marks. If you want to have "even" text in your final processed output, you
Bram Moolenaar071d4272004-06-13 20:20:40 +00001828need to maintaining regular spacing in the input text. To mark both trailing
1829spaces and two or more spaces after a punctuation as an error, use: >
1830
1831 :let nroff_space_errors = 1
1832
1833Another technique to detect extra spacing and other errors that will interfere
1834with the correct typesetting of your file, is to define an eye-catching
1835highlighting definition for the syntax groups "nroffDefinition" and
Bram Moolenaar13fcaaf2005-04-15 21:13:42 +00001836"nroffDefSpecial" in your configuration files. For example: >
Bram Moolenaar071d4272004-06-13 20:20:40 +00001837
1838 hi def nroffDefinition term=italic cterm=italic gui=reverse
1839 hi def nroffDefSpecial term=italic,bold cterm=italic,bold
1840 \ gui=reverse,bold
1841
1842If you want to navigate preprocessor entries in your source file as easily as
1843with section markers, you can activate the following option in your .vimrc
1844file: >
1845
1846 let b:preprocs_as_sections = 1
1847
Bram Moolenaar69a7cb42004-06-20 12:51:53 +00001848As well, the syntax file adds an extra paragraph marker for the extended
Bram Moolenaar071d4272004-06-13 20:20:40 +00001849paragraph macro (.XP) in the ms package.
1850
1851Finally, there is a |groff.vim| syntax file that can be used for enabling
1852groff syntax highlighting either on a file basis or globally by default.
1853
1854
Bram Moolenaarda2303d2005-08-30 21:55:26 +00001855OCAML *ocaml.vim* *ft-ocaml-syntax*
Bram Moolenaar071d4272004-06-13 20:20:40 +00001856
1857The OCaml syntax file handles files having the following prefixes: .ml,
1858.mli, .mll and .mly. By setting the following variable >
1859
1860 :let ocaml_revised = 1
1861
1862you can switch from standard OCaml-syntax to revised syntax as supported
1863by the camlp4 preprocessor. Setting the variable >
1864
1865 :let ocaml_noend_error = 1
1866
1867prevents highlighting of "end" as error, which is useful when sources
1868contain very long structures that Vim does not synchronize anymore.
1869
1870
Bram Moolenaarda2303d2005-08-30 21:55:26 +00001871PAPP *papp.vim* *ft-papp-syntax*
Bram Moolenaar071d4272004-06-13 20:20:40 +00001872
1873The PApp syntax file handles .papp files and, to a lesser extend, .pxml
1874and .pxsl files which are all a mixture of perl/xml/html/other using xml
Bram Moolenaar13fcaaf2005-04-15 21:13:42 +00001875as the top-level file format. By default everything inside phtml or pxml
1876sections is treated as a string with embedded preprocessor commands. If
Bram Moolenaar071d4272004-06-13 20:20:40 +00001877you set the variable: >
1878
1879 :let papp_include_html=1
1880
1881in your startup file it will try to syntax-hilight html code inside phtml
1882sections, but this is relatively slow and much too colourful to be able to
Bram Moolenaar13fcaaf2005-04-15 21:13:42 +00001883edit sensibly. ;)
Bram Moolenaar071d4272004-06-13 20:20:40 +00001884
1885The newest version of the papp.vim syntax file can usually be found at
1886http://papp.plan9.de.
1887
1888
Bram Moolenaarda2303d2005-08-30 21:55:26 +00001889PASCAL *pascal.vim* *ft-pascal-syntax*
Bram Moolenaar071d4272004-06-13 20:20:40 +00001890
1891Files matching "*.p" could be Progress or Pascal. If the automatic detection
1892doesn't work for you, or you don't edit Progress at all, use this in your
1893startup vimrc: >
1894
1895 :let filetype_p = "pascal"
1896
1897The Pascal syntax file has been extended to take into account some extensions
1898provided by Turbo Pascal, Free Pascal Compiler and GNU Pascal Compiler.
Bram Moolenaar13fcaaf2005-04-15 21:13:42 +00001899Delphi keywords are also supported. By default, Turbo Pascal 7.0 features are
Bram Moolenaar071d4272004-06-13 20:20:40 +00001900enabled. If you prefer to stick with the standard Pascal keywords, add the
1901following line to your startup file: >
1902
1903 :let pascal_traditional=1
1904
1905To switch on Delphi specific constructions (such as one-line comments,
1906keywords, etc): >
1907
1908 :let pascal_delphi=1
1909
1910
1911The option pascal_symbol_operator controls whether symbol operators such as +,
1912*, .., etc. are displayed using the Operator color or not. To colorize symbol
1913operators, add the following line to your startup file: >
1914
1915 :let pascal_symbol_operator=1
1916
1917Some functions are highlighted by default. To switch it off: >
1918
1919 :let pascal_no_functions=1
1920
1921Furthermore, there are specific variable for some compiler. Besides
1922pascal_delphi, there are pascal_gpc and pascal_fpc. Default extensions try to
1923match Turbo Pascal. >
1924
1925 :let pascal_gpc=1
1926
1927or >
1928
1929 :let pascal_fpc=1
1930
1931To ensure that strings are defined on a single line, you can define the
1932pascal_one_line_string variable. >
1933
1934 :let pascal_one_line_string=1
1935
1936If you dislike <Tab> chars, you can set the pascal_no_tabs variable. Tabs
1937will be highlighted as Error. >
1938
1939 :let pascal_no_tabs=1
1940
1941
1942
Bram Moolenaarda2303d2005-08-30 21:55:26 +00001943PERL *perl.vim* *ft-perl-syntax*
Bram Moolenaar071d4272004-06-13 20:20:40 +00001944
1945There are a number of possible options to the perl syntax highlighting.
1946
1947If you use POD files or POD segments, you might: >
1948
1949 :let perl_include_pod = 1
1950
Bram Moolenaard4755bb2004-09-02 19:12:26 +00001951The reduce the complexity of parsing (and increase performance) you can switch
1952off two elements in the parsing of variable names and contents. >
Bram Moolenaar071d4272004-06-13 20:20:40 +00001953
Bram Moolenaard4755bb2004-09-02 19:12:26 +00001954To handle package references in variable and function names not differently
1955from the rest of the name (like 'PkgName::' in '$PkgName::VarName'): >
Bram Moolenaar071d4272004-06-13 20:20:40 +00001956
Bram Moolenaard4755bb2004-09-02 19:12:26 +00001957 :let perl_no_scope_in_variables = 1
Bram Moolenaar071d4272004-06-13 20:20:40 +00001958
Bram Moolenaard4755bb2004-09-02 19:12:26 +00001959(In Vim 6.x it was the other way around: "perl_want_scope_in_variables"
1960enabled it.)
1961
1962If you do not want complex things like '@{${"foo"}}' to be parsed: >
1963
1964 :let perl_no_extended_vars = 1
1965
Bram Moolenaar3fdfa4a2004-10-07 21:02:47 +00001966(In Vim 6.x it was the other way around: "perl_extended_vars" enabled it.)
Bram Moolenaar071d4272004-06-13 20:20:40 +00001967
Bram Moolenaar13fcaaf2005-04-15 21:13:42 +00001968The coloring strings can be changed. By default strings and qq friends will be
1969highlighted like the first line. If you set the variable
Bram Moolenaar071d4272004-06-13 20:20:40 +00001970perl_string_as_statement, it will be highlighted as in the second line.
1971
1972 "hello world!"; qq|hello world|;
1973 ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^NN^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^N (unlet perl_string_as_statement)
1974 S^^^^^^^^^^^^SNNSSS^^^^^^^^^^^SN (let perl_string_as_statement)
1975
1976(^ = perlString, S = perlStatement, N = None at all)
1977
Bram Moolenaar13fcaaf2005-04-15 21:13:42 +00001978The syncing has 3 options. The first two switch off some triggering of
Bram Moolenaar071d4272004-06-13 20:20:40 +00001979synchronization and should only be needed in case it fails to work properly.
1980If while scrolling all of a sudden the whole screen changes color completely
Bram Moolenaar13fcaaf2005-04-15 21:13:42 +00001981then you should try and switch off one of those. Let me know if you can figure
Bram Moolenaar071d4272004-06-13 20:20:40 +00001982out the line that causes the mistake.
1983
1984One triggers on "^\s*sub\s*" and the other on "^[$@%]" more or less. >
1985
1986 :let perl_no_sync_on_sub
1987 :let perl_no_sync_on_global_var
1988
1989Below you can set the maximum distance VIM should look for starting points for
1990its attempts in syntax highlighting. >
1991
1992 :let perl_sync_dist = 100
1993
1994If you want to use folding with perl, set perl_fold: >
1995
Bram Moolenaard4755bb2004-09-02 19:12:26 +00001996 :let perl_fold = 1
1997
1998If you want to fold blocks in if statements, etc. as well set the following: >
1999
2000 :let perl_fold_blocks = 1
Bram Moolenaar071d4272004-06-13 20:20:40 +00002001
Bram Moolenaar8ada17c2006-01-19 22:16:24 +00002002To avoid folding packages or subs when perl_fold is let, let the appropriate
2003variable(s): >
2004
2005 :unlet perl_nofold_packages
2006 :unlet perl_nofold_subs
2007
2008
Bram Moolenaar071d4272004-06-13 20:20:40 +00002009
Bram Moolenaarda2303d2005-08-30 21:55:26 +00002010PHP3 and PHP4 *php.vim* *php3.vim* *ft-php-syntax* *ft-php3-syntax*
Bram Moolenaar071d4272004-06-13 20:20:40 +00002011
2012[note: previously this was called "php3", but since it now also supports php4
2013it has been renamed to "php"]
2014
2015There are the following options for the php syntax highlighting.
2016
2017If you like SQL syntax highlighting inside Strings: >
2018
2019 let php_sql_query = 1
2020
2021For highlighting the Baselib methods: >
2022
2023 let php_baselib = 1
2024
2025Enable HTML syntax highlighting inside strings: >
2026
2027 let php_htmlInStrings = 1
2028
2029Using the old colorstyle: >
2030
2031 let php_oldStyle = 1
2032
2033Enable highlighting ASP-style short tags: >
2034
2035 let php_asp_tags = 1
2036
2037Disable short tags: >
2038
2039 let php_noShortTags = 1
2040
2041For highlighting parent error ] or ): >
2042
2043 let php_parent_error_close = 1
2044
2045For skipping an php end tag, if there exists an open ( or [ without a closing
2046one: >
2047
2048 let php_parent_error_open = 1
2049
2050Enable folding for classes and functions: >
2051
2052 let php_folding = 1
2053
2054Selecting syncing method: >
2055
2056 let php_sync_method = x
2057
2058x = -1 to sync by search (default),
2059x > 0 to sync at least x lines backwards,
2060x = 0 to sync from start.
2061
2062
Bram Moolenaard2cec5b2006-03-28 21:08:56 +00002063PLAINTEX *plaintex.vim* *ft-plaintex-syntax*
2064
2065TeX is a typesetting language, and plaintex is the file type for the "plain"
2066variant of TeX. If you never want your *.tex files recognized as plain TeX,
2067see |ft-tex-plugin|.
2068
2069This syntax file has the option >
2070
2071 let g:plaintex_delimiters = 1
2072
2073if you want to highlight brackets "[]" and braces "{}".
2074
2075
Bram Moolenaarda2303d2005-08-30 21:55:26 +00002076PPWIZARD *ppwiz.vim* *ft-ppwiz-syntax*
Bram Moolenaar071d4272004-06-13 20:20:40 +00002077
2078PPWizard is a preprocessor for HTML and OS/2 INF files
2079
2080This syntax file has the options:
2081
2082- ppwiz_highlight_defs : determines highlighting mode for PPWizard's
Bram Moolenaar13fcaaf2005-04-15 21:13:42 +00002083 definitions. Possible values are
Bram Moolenaar071d4272004-06-13 20:20:40 +00002084
2085 ppwiz_highlight_defs = 1 : PPWizard #define statements retain the
Bram Moolenaar13fcaaf2005-04-15 21:13:42 +00002086 colors of their contents (e.g. PPWizard macros and variables)
Bram Moolenaar071d4272004-06-13 20:20:40 +00002087
2088 ppwiz_highlight_defs = 2 : preprocessor #define and #evaluate
2089 statements are shown in a single color with the exception of line
2090 continuation symbols
2091
2092 The default setting for ppwiz_highlight_defs is 1.
2093
2094- ppwiz_with_html : If the value is 1 (the default), highlight literal
2095 HTML code; if 0, treat HTML code like ordinary text.
2096
2097
Bram Moolenaarda2303d2005-08-30 21:55:26 +00002098PHTML *phtml.vim* *ft-phtml-syntax*
Bram Moolenaar071d4272004-06-13 20:20:40 +00002099
2100There are two options for the phtml syntax highlighting.
2101
2102If you like SQL syntax highlighting inside Strings, use this: >
2103
2104 :let phtml_sql_query = 1
2105
2106For syncing, minlines defaults to 100. If you prefer another value, you can
2107set "phtml_minlines" to the value you desire. Example: >
2108
2109 :let phtml_minlines = 200
2110
2111
Bram Moolenaarda2303d2005-08-30 21:55:26 +00002112POSTSCRIPT *postscr.vim* *ft-postscr-syntax*
Bram Moolenaar071d4272004-06-13 20:20:40 +00002113
2114There are several options when it comes to highlighting PostScript.
2115
2116First which version of the PostScript language to highlight. There are
2117currently three defined language versions, or levels. Level 1 is the original
2118and base version, and includes all extensions prior to the release of level 2.
2119Level 2 is the most common version around, and includes its own set of
2120extensions prior to the release of level 3. Level 3 is currently the highest
2121level supported. You select which level of the PostScript language you want
2122highlighted by defining the postscr_level variable as follows: >
2123
2124 :let postscr_level=2
2125
2126If this variable is not defined it defaults to 2 (level 2) since this is
2127the most prevalent version currently.
2128
2129Note, not all PS interpreters will support all language features for a
2130particular language level. In particular the %!PS-Adobe-3.0 at the start of
2131PS files does NOT mean the PostScript present is level 3 PostScript!
2132
2133If you are working with Display PostScript, you can include highlighting of
2134Display PS language features by defining the postscr_display variable as
2135follows: >
2136
2137 :let postscr_display=1
2138
2139If you are working with Ghostscript, you can include highlighting of
2140Ghostscript specific language features by defining the variable
2141postscr_ghostscript as follows: >
2142
2143 :let postscr_ghostscript=1
2144
2145PostScript is a large language, with many predefined elements. While it
2146useful to have all these elements highlighted, on slower machines this can
2147cause Vim to slow down. In an attempt to be machine friendly font names and
2148character encodings are not highlighted by default. Unless you are working
2149explicitly with either of these this should be ok. If you want them to be
2150highlighted you should set one or both of the following variables: >
2151
2152 :let postscr_fonts=1
2153 :let postscr_encodings=1
2154
2155There is a stylistic option to the highlighting of and, or, and not. In
2156PostScript the function of these operators depends on the types of their
2157operands - if the operands are booleans then they are the logical operators,
2158if they are integers then they are binary operators. As binary and logical
2159operators can be highlighted differently they have to be highlighted one way
2160or the other. By default they are treated as logical operators. They can be
2161highlighted as binary operators by defining the variable
2162postscr_andornot_binary as follows: >
2163
2164 :let postscr_andornot_binary=1
2165<
2166
Bram Moolenaarda2303d2005-08-30 21:55:26 +00002167 *ptcap.vim* *ft-printcap-syntax*
2168PRINTCAP + TERMCAP *ft-ptcap-syntax* *ft-termcap-syntax*
Bram Moolenaar071d4272004-06-13 20:20:40 +00002169
2170This syntax file applies to the printcap and termcap databases.
2171
2172In order for Vim to recognize printcap/termcap files that do not match
2173the patterns *printcap*, or *termcap*, you must put additional patterns
2174appropriate to your system in your |myfiletypefile| file. For these
2175patterns, you must set the variable "b:ptcap_type" to either "print" or
2176"term", and then the 'filetype' option to ptcap.
2177
2178For example, to make Vim identify all files in /etc/termcaps/ as termcap
2179files, add the following: >
2180
2181 :au BufNewFile,BufRead /etc/termcaps/* let b:ptcap_type = "term" |
2182 \ set filetype=ptcap
2183
2184If you notice highlighting errors while scrolling backwards, which
2185are fixed when redrawing with CTRL-L, try setting the "ptcap_minlines"
2186internal variable to a larger number: >
2187
2188 :let ptcap_minlines = 50
2189
2190(The default is 20 lines.)
2191
2192
Bram Moolenaarda2303d2005-08-30 21:55:26 +00002193PROGRESS *progress.vim* *ft-progress-syntax*
Bram Moolenaar071d4272004-06-13 20:20:40 +00002194
2195Files matching "*.w" could be Progress or cweb. If the automatic detection
2196doesn't work for you, or you don't edit cweb at all, use this in your
2197startup vimrc: >
2198 :let filetype_w = "progress"
2199The same happens for "*.i", which could be assembly, and "*.p", which could be
2200Pascal. Use this if you don't use assembly and Pascal: >
2201 :let filetype_i = "progress"
2202 :let filetype_p = "progress"
2203
2204
Bram Moolenaarda2303d2005-08-30 21:55:26 +00002205PYTHON *python.vim* *ft-python-syntax*
Bram Moolenaar071d4272004-06-13 20:20:40 +00002206
2207There are four options to control Python syntax highlighting.
2208
2209For highlighted numbers: >
2210 :let python_highlight_numbers = 1
2211
2212For highlighted builtin functions: >
2213 :let python_highlight_builtins = 1
2214
2215For highlighted standard exceptions: >
2216 :let python_highlight_exceptions = 1
2217
2218For highlighted trailing whitespace and mix of spaces and tabs:
2219 :let python_highlight_space_errors = 1
2220
2221If you want all possible Python highlighting (the same as setting the
2222preceding three options): >
2223 :let python_highlight_all = 1
2224
2225
Bram Moolenaarda2303d2005-08-30 21:55:26 +00002226QUAKE *quake.vim* *ft-quake-syntax*
Bram Moolenaar071d4272004-06-13 20:20:40 +00002227
2228The Quake syntax definition should work for most any FPS (First Person
Bram Moolenaar13fcaaf2005-04-15 21:13:42 +00002229Shooter) based on one of the Quake engines. However, the command names vary
Bram Moolenaar071d4272004-06-13 20:20:40 +00002230a bit between the three games (Quake, Quake 2, and Quake 3 Arena) so the
2231syntax definition checks for the existence of three global variables to allow
Bram Moolenaar13fcaaf2005-04-15 21:13:42 +00002232users to specify what commands are legal in their files. The three variables
Bram Moolenaar071d4272004-06-13 20:20:40 +00002233can be set for the following effects:
2234
2235set to highlight commands only available in Quake: >
2236 :let quake_is_quake1 = 1
2237
2238set to highlight commands only available in Quake 2: >
2239 :let quake_is_quake2 = 1
2240
2241set to highlight commands only available in Quake 3 Arena: >
2242 :let quake_is_quake3 = 1
2243
2244Any combination of these three variables is legal, but might highlight more
2245commands than are actually available to you by the game.
2246
2247
Bram Moolenaarda2303d2005-08-30 21:55:26 +00002248READLINE *readline.vim* *ft-readline-syntax*
Bram Moolenaar071d4272004-06-13 20:20:40 +00002249
2250The readline library is primarily used by the BASH shell, which adds quite a
Bram Moolenaar13fcaaf2005-04-15 21:13:42 +00002251few commands and options to the ones already available. To highlight these
Bram Moolenaar071d4272004-06-13 20:20:40 +00002252items as well you can add the following to your |vimrc| or just type it in the
2253command line before loading a file with the readline syntax: >
2254 let readline_has_bash = 1
2255
2256This will add highlighting for the commands that BASH (version 2.05a and
2257later, and part earlier) adds.
2258
2259
Bram Moolenaarda2303d2005-08-30 21:55:26 +00002260REXX *rexx.vim* *ft-rexx-syntax*
Bram Moolenaar071d4272004-06-13 20:20:40 +00002261
2262If you notice highlighting errors while scrolling backwards, which are fixed
2263when redrawing with CTRL-L, try setting the "rexx_minlines" internal variable
2264to a larger number: >
2265 :let rexx_minlines = 50
2266This will make the syntax synchronization start 50 lines before the first
2267displayed line. The default value is 10. The disadvantage of using a larger
2268number is that redrawing can become slow.
2269
2270
Bram Moolenaarda2303d2005-08-30 21:55:26 +00002271RUBY *ruby.vim* *ft-ruby-syntax*
Bram Moolenaar071d4272004-06-13 20:20:40 +00002272
Bram Moolenaar943d2b52005-12-02 00:50:49 +00002273There are a number of options to the Ruby syntax highlighting.
Bram Moolenaar071d4272004-06-13 20:20:40 +00002274
2275By default, the "end" keyword is colorized according to the opening statement
Bram Moolenaar943d2b52005-12-02 00:50:49 +00002276of the block it closes. While useful, this feature can be expensive; if you
Bram Moolenaar071d4272004-06-13 20:20:40 +00002277experience slow redrawing (or you are on a terminal with poor color support)
2278you may want to turn it off by defining the "ruby_no_expensive" variable: >
Bram Moolenaar943d2b52005-12-02 00:50:49 +00002279
Bram Moolenaar071d4272004-06-13 20:20:40 +00002280 :let ruby_no_expensive = 1
Bram Moolenaar943d2b52005-12-02 00:50:49 +00002281
Bram Moolenaar071d4272004-06-13 20:20:40 +00002282In this case the same color will be used for all control keywords.
2283
2284If you do want this feature enabled, but notice highlighting errors while
2285scrolling backwards, which are fixed when redrawing with CTRL-L, try setting
2286the "ruby_minlines" variable to a value larger than 50: >
Bram Moolenaar943d2b52005-12-02 00:50:49 +00002287
Bram Moolenaar071d4272004-06-13 20:20:40 +00002288 :let ruby_minlines = 100
Bram Moolenaar943d2b52005-12-02 00:50:49 +00002289
Bram Moolenaar071d4272004-06-13 20:20:40 +00002290Ideally, this value should be a number of lines large enough to embrace your
2291largest class or module.
2292
Bram Moolenaar943d2b52005-12-02 00:50:49 +00002293Highlighting of special identifiers can be disabled by defining
Bram Moolenaar071d4272004-06-13 20:20:40 +00002294"ruby_no_identifiers": >
Bram Moolenaar943d2b52005-12-02 00:50:49 +00002295
Bram Moolenaar071d4272004-06-13 20:20:40 +00002296 :let ruby_no_identifiers = 1
Bram Moolenaar943d2b52005-12-02 00:50:49 +00002297
Bram Moolenaar071d4272004-06-13 20:20:40 +00002298This will prevent highlighting of special identifiers like "ConstantName",
Bram Moolenaar943d2b52005-12-02 00:50:49 +00002299"$global_var", "@@class_var", "@instance_var", "| block_param |", and
2300":symbol".
Bram Moolenaar071d4272004-06-13 20:20:40 +00002301
Bram Moolenaar943d2b52005-12-02 00:50:49 +00002302Significant methods of Kernel, Module and Object are highlighted by default.
2303This can be disabled by defining "ruby_no_special_methods": >
Bram Moolenaar071d4272004-06-13 20:20:40 +00002304
Bram Moolenaar943d2b52005-12-02 00:50:49 +00002305 :let ruby_no_special_methods = 1
2306
2307This will prevent highlighting of important methods such as "require", "attr",
2308"private", "raise" and "proc".
2309
2310Whitespace errors can be highlighted by defining "ruby_space_errors": >
2311
2312 :let ruby_space_errors = 1
2313
2314This will highlight trailing whitespace and tabs preceded by a space character
2315as errors. This can be refined by defining "ruby_no_trail_space_error" and
2316"ruby_no_tab_space_error" which will ignore trailing whitespace and tabs after
2317spaces respectively.
2318
2319Folding can be enabled by defining "ruby_fold": >
2320
2321 :let ruby_fold = 1
2322
2323This will set the 'foldmethod' option to "syntax" and allow folding of
2324classes, modules, methods, code blocks, heredocs and comments.
Bram Moolenaarda2303d2005-08-30 21:55:26 +00002325SCHEME *scheme.vim* *ft-scheme-syntax*
Bram Moolenaar21cf8232004-07-16 20:18:37 +00002326
2327By default only R5RS keywords are highlighted and properly indented.
2328
2329MzScheme-specific stuff will be used if b:is_mzscheme or g:is_mzscheme
2330variables are defined.
Bram Moolenaar293ee4d2004-12-09 21:34:53 +00002331
2332Also scheme.vim supports keywords of the Chicken Scheme->C compiler. Define
2333b:is_chicken or g:is_chicken, if you need them.
Bram Moolenaar21cf8232004-07-16 20:18:37 +00002334
2335
Bram Moolenaarda2303d2005-08-30 21:55:26 +00002336SDL *sdl.vim* *ft-sdl-syntax*
Bram Moolenaar071d4272004-06-13 20:20:40 +00002337
2338The SDL highlighting probably misses a few keywords, but SDL has so many
2339of them it's almost impossibly to cope.
2340
2341The new standard, SDL-2000, specifies that all identifiers are
2342case-sensitive (which was not so before), and that all keywords can be
Bram Moolenaar13fcaaf2005-04-15 21:13:42 +00002343used either completely lowercase or completely uppercase. To have the
Bram Moolenaar071d4272004-06-13 20:20:40 +00002344highlighting reflect this, you can set the following variable: >
2345 :let sdl_2000=1
2346
Bram Moolenaar13fcaaf2005-04-15 21:13:42 +00002347This also sets many new keywords. If you want to disable the old
Bram Moolenaar071d4272004-06-13 20:20:40 +00002348keywords, which is probably a good idea, use: >
2349 :let SDL_no_96=1
2350
2351
2352The indentation is probably also incomplete, but right now I am very
2353satisfied with it for my own projects.
2354
2355
Bram Moolenaarda2303d2005-08-30 21:55:26 +00002356SED *sed.vim* *ft-sed-syntax*
Bram Moolenaar071d4272004-06-13 20:20:40 +00002357
2358To make tabs stand out from regular blanks (accomplished by using Todo
2359highlighting on the tabs), define "highlight_sedtabs" by putting >
2360
2361 :let highlight_sedtabs = 1
2362
2363in the vimrc file. (This special highlighting only applies for tabs
2364inside search patterns, replacement texts, addresses or text included
2365by an Append/Change/Insert command.) If you enable this option, it is
2366also a good idea to set the tab width to one character; by doing that,
2367you can easily count the number of tabs in a string.
2368
2369Bugs:
2370
2371 The transform command (y) is treated exactly like the substitute
2372 command. This means that, as far as this syntax file is concerned,
2373 transform accepts the same flags as substitute, which is wrong.
2374 (Transform accepts no flags.) I tolerate this bug because the
2375 involved commands need very complex treatment (95 patterns, one for
2376 each plausible pattern delimiter).
2377
2378
Bram Moolenaarda2303d2005-08-30 21:55:26 +00002379SGML *sgml.vim* *ft-sgml-syntax*
Bram Moolenaar071d4272004-06-13 20:20:40 +00002380
2381The coloring scheme for tags in the SGML file works as follows.
2382
2383The <> of opening tags are colored differently than the </> of a closing tag.
2384This is on purpose! For opening tags the 'Function' color is used, while for
2385closing tags the 'Type' color is used (See syntax.vim to check how those are
2386defined for you)
2387
2388Known tag names are colored the same way as statements in C. Unknown tag
2389names are not colored which makes it easy to spot errors.
2390
Bram Moolenaar13fcaaf2005-04-15 21:13:42 +00002391Note that the same is true for argument (or attribute) names. Known attribute
Bram Moolenaar071d4272004-06-13 20:20:40 +00002392names are colored differently than unknown ones.
2393
Bram Moolenaar13fcaaf2005-04-15 21:13:42 +00002394Some SGML tags are used to change the rendering of text. The following tags
Bram Moolenaar071d4272004-06-13 20:20:40 +00002395are recognized by the sgml.vim syntax coloring file and change the way normal
2396text is shown: <varname> <emphasis> <command> <function> <literal>
2397<replaceable> <ulink> and <link>.
2398
2399If you want to change how such text is rendered, you must redefine the
2400following syntax groups:
2401
2402 - sgmlBold
2403 - sgmlBoldItalic
2404 - sgmlUnderline
2405 - sgmlItalic
2406 - sgmlLink for links
2407
2408To make this redefinition work you must redefine them all and define the
2409following variable in your vimrc (this is due to the order in which the files
2410are read during initialization) >
2411 let sgml_my_rendering=1
2412
2413You can also disable this rendering by adding the following line to your
2414vimrc file: >
2415 let sgml_no_rendering=1
2416
2417(Adapted from the html.vim help text by Claudio Fleiner <claudio@fleiner.com>)
2418
2419
Bram Moolenaarda2303d2005-08-30 21:55:26 +00002420SH *sh.vim* *ft-sh-syntax* *ft-bash-syntax* *ft-ksh-syntax*
Bram Moolenaar071d4272004-06-13 20:20:40 +00002421
Bram Moolenaar910f66f2006-04-05 20:41:53 +00002422This covers the "normal" Unix (Borne) sh, bash and the Korn shell.
Bram Moolenaar071d4272004-06-13 20:20:40 +00002423
2424Vim attempts to determine which shell type is in use by specifying that
2425various filenames are of specific types: >
2426
2427 ksh : .kshrc* *.ksh
2428 bash: .bashrc* bashrc bash.bashrc .bash_profile* *.bash
2429<
2430If none of these cases pertain, then the first line of the file is examined
2431(ex. /bin/sh /bin/ksh /bin/bash). If the first line specifies a shelltype,
2432then that shelltype is used. However some files (ex. .profile) are known to
2433be shell files but the type is not apparent. Furthermore, on many systems
Bram Moolenaar7fc904b2006-04-13 20:37:35 +00002434sh is symbolically linked to "bash" (Linux, Windows+cygwin) or "ksh" (Posix).
Bram Moolenaar071d4272004-06-13 20:20:40 +00002435
2436One may specify a global default by instantiating one of the following three
2437variables in your <.vimrc>:
2438
2439 ksh: >
Bram Moolenaar7fc904b2006-04-13 20:37:35 +00002440 let g:is_kornshell = 1
2441< posix: (using this is the same as setting is_kornshell to 1) >
2442 let g:is_posix = 1
Bram Moolenaar071d4272004-06-13 20:20:40 +00002443< bash: >
Bram Moolenaar7fc904b2006-04-13 20:37:35 +00002444 let g:is_bash = 1
2445< sh: (default) Borne shell >
2446 let g:is_sh = 1
Bram Moolenaar071d4272004-06-13 20:20:40 +00002447
Bram Moolenaar910f66f2006-04-05 20:41:53 +00002448If there's no "#! ..." line, and the user hasn't availed himself/herself of a
2449default sh.vim syntax setting as just shown, then syntax/sh.vim will assume
2450the Borne shell syntax. No need to quote RFCs or market penetration
Bram Moolenaar7fc904b2006-04-13 20:37:35 +00002451statistics in error reports, please -- just select the default version of
2452the sh your system uses in your <.vimrc>.
Bram Moolenaar910f66f2006-04-05 20:41:53 +00002453
Bram Moolenaar071d4272004-06-13 20:20:40 +00002454If, in your <.vimrc>, you set >
2455 let g:sh_fold_enabled= 1
2456>
2457then various syntax items (HereDocuments and function bodies) become
2458syntax-foldable (see |:syn-fold|).
2459
2460If you notice highlighting errors while scrolling backwards, which are fixed
2461when redrawing with CTRL-L, try setting the "sh_minlines" internal variable
2462to a larger number. Example: >
2463
2464 let sh_minlines = 500
2465
2466This will make syntax synchronization start 500 lines before the first
2467displayed line. The default value is 200. The disadvantage of using a larger
2468number is that redrawing can become slow.
2469
2470If you don't have much to synchronize on, displaying can be very slow. To
2471reduce this, the "sh_maxlines" internal variable can be set. Example: >
2472
2473 let sh_maxlines = 100
2474<
2475The default is to use the twice sh_minlines. Set it to a smaller number to
2476speed up displaying. The disadvantage is that highlight errors may appear.
2477
2478
Bram Moolenaarda2303d2005-08-30 21:55:26 +00002479SPEEDUP (AspenTech plant simulator) *spup.vim* *ft-spup-syntax*
Bram Moolenaar071d4272004-06-13 20:20:40 +00002480
2481The Speedup syntax file has some options:
2482
2483- strict_subsections : If this variable is defined, only keywords for
2484 sections and subsections will be highlighted as statements but not
2485 other keywords (like WITHIN in the OPERATION section).
2486
2487- highlight_types : Definition of this variable causes stream types
2488 like temperature or pressure to be highlighted as Type, not as a
Bram Moolenaar13fcaaf2005-04-15 21:13:42 +00002489 plain Identifier. Included are the types that are usually found in
Bram Moolenaar071d4272004-06-13 20:20:40 +00002490 the DECLARE section; if you defined own types, you have to include
2491 them in the syntax file.
2492
2493- oneline_comments : this value ranges from 1 to 3 and determines the
2494 highlighting of # style comments.
2495
2496 oneline_comments = 1 : allow normal Speedup code after an even
2497 number of #s.
2498
2499 oneline_comments = 2 : show code starting with the second # as
Bram Moolenaar13fcaaf2005-04-15 21:13:42 +00002500 error. This is the default setting.
Bram Moolenaar071d4272004-06-13 20:20:40 +00002501
2502 oneline_comments = 3 : show the whole line as error if it contains
2503 more than one #.
2504
2505Since especially OPERATION sections tend to become very large due to
Bram Moolenaar13fcaaf2005-04-15 21:13:42 +00002506PRESETting variables, syncing may be critical. If your computer is
Bram Moolenaar071d4272004-06-13 20:20:40 +00002507fast enough, you can increase minlines and/or maxlines near the end of
2508the syntax file.
2509
2510
Bram Moolenaarda2303d2005-08-30 21:55:26 +00002511SQL *sql.vim* *ft-sql-syntax*
2512 *sqlinformix.vim* *ft-sqlinformix-syntax*
Bram Moolenaar1056d982006-03-09 22:37:52 +00002513 *sqlanywhere.vim* *ft-sqlanywhere-syntax*
Bram Moolenaard4755bb2004-09-02 19:12:26 +00002514
Bram Moolenaar1056d982006-03-09 22:37:52 +00002515While there is an ANSI standard for SQL, most database engines add their own
2516custom extensions. Vim currently supports the Oracle and Informix dialects of
2517SQL. Vim assumes "*.sql" files are Oracle SQL by default.
Bram Moolenaard4755bb2004-09-02 19:12:26 +00002518
Bram Moolenaar1056d982006-03-09 22:37:52 +00002519Vim currently has SQL support for a variety of different vendors via syntax
2520scripts. You can change Vim's default from Oracle to any of the current SQL
2521supported types. You can also easily alter the SQL dialect being used on a
2522buffer by buffer basis.
2523
2524For more detailed instructions see |sql.txt|.
Bram Moolenaard4755bb2004-09-02 19:12:26 +00002525
2526
Bram Moolenaarda2303d2005-08-30 21:55:26 +00002527TCSH *tcsh.vim* *ft-tcsh-syntax*
Bram Moolenaar071d4272004-06-13 20:20:40 +00002528
2529This covers the shell named "tcsh". It is a superset of csh. See |csh.vim|
2530for how the filetype is detected.
2531
2532Tcsh does not allow \" in strings unless the "backslash_quote" shell variable
Bram Moolenaar13fcaaf2005-04-15 21:13:42 +00002533is set. If you want VIM to assume that no backslash quote constructs exist add
Bram Moolenaar071d4272004-06-13 20:20:40 +00002534this line to your .vimrc: >
2535
2536 :let tcsh_backslash_quote = 0
2537
2538If you notice highlighting errors while scrolling backwards, which are fixed
2539when redrawing with CTRL-L, try setting the "tcsh_minlines" internal variable
2540to a larger number: >
2541
2542 :let tcsh_minlines = 100
2543
2544This will make the syntax synchronization start 100 lines before the first
Bram Moolenaar13fcaaf2005-04-15 21:13:42 +00002545displayed line. The default value is 15. The disadvantage of using a larger
Bram Moolenaar071d4272004-06-13 20:20:40 +00002546number is that redrawing can become slow.
2547
2548
Bram Moolenaarda2303d2005-08-30 21:55:26 +00002549TEX *tex.vim* *ft-tex-syntax*
Bram Moolenaar071d4272004-06-13 20:20:40 +00002550
Bram Moolenaar488c6512005-08-11 20:09:58 +00002551*tex-folding*
2552Want Syntax Folding? ~
2553
2554As of version 28 of <syntax/tex.vim>, syntax-based folding of parts, chapters,
2555sections, subsections, etc are supported. Put >
2556 let g:tex_fold_enabled=1
2557in your <.vimrc>, and :set fdm=syntax. I suggest doing the latter via a
2558modeline at the end of your LaTeX file: >
2559 % vim: fdm=syntax
2560<
2561*tex-runon*
Bram Moolenaar071d4272004-06-13 20:20:40 +00002562Run-on Comments/Math? ~
2563
Bram Moolenaar488c6512005-08-11 20:09:58 +00002564The <syntax/tex.vim> highlighting supports TeX, LaTeX, and some AmsTeX. The
2565highlighting supports three primary zones/regions: normal, texZone, and
2566texMathZone. Although considerable effort has been made to have these zones
2567terminate properly, zones delineated by $..$ and $$..$$ cannot be synchronized
2568as there's no difference between start and end patterns. Consequently, a
Bram Moolenaar071d4272004-06-13 20:20:40 +00002569special "TeX comment" has been provided >
2570 %stopzone
2571which will forcibly terminate the highlighting of either a texZone or a
2572texMathZone.
2573
Bram Moolenaar488c6512005-08-11 20:09:58 +00002574*tex-slow*
Bram Moolenaar071d4272004-06-13 20:20:40 +00002575Slow Syntax Highlighting? ~
2576
2577If you have a slow computer, you may wish to reduce the values for >
2578 :syn sync maxlines=200
2579 :syn sync minlines=50
2580(especially the latter). If your computer is fast, you may wish to
Bram Moolenaar13fcaaf2005-04-15 21:13:42 +00002581increase them. This primarily affects synchronizing (i.e. just what group,
Bram Moolenaar071d4272004-06-13 20:20:40 +00002582if any, is the text at the top of the screen supposed to be in?).
2583
Bram Moolenaar488c6512005-08-11 20:09:58 +00002584*tex-error*
Bram Moolenaar071d4272004-06-13 20:20:40 +00002585Excessive Error Highlighting? ~
2586
2587The <tex.vim> supports lexical error checking of various sorts. Thus,
2588although the error checking is ofttimes very useful, it can indicate
2589errors where none actually are. If this proves to be a problem for you,
2590you may put in your <.vimrc> the following statement: >
2591 let tex_no_error=1
Bram Moolenaar488c6512005-08-11 20:09:58 +00002592and all error checking by <syntax/tex.vim> will be suppressed.
Bram Moolenaar071d4272004-06-13 20:20:40 +00002593
Bram Moolenaar488c6512005-08-11 20:09:58 +00002594*tex-math*
Bram Moolenaar071d4272004-06-13 20:20:40 +00002595Need a new Math Group? ~
2596
2597If you want to include a new math group in your LaTeX, the following
2598code shows you an example as to how you might do so: >
Bram Moolenaar488c6512005-08-11 20:09:58 +00002599 call TexNewMathZone(sfx,mathzone,starform)
2600You'll want to provide the new math group with a unique suffix
2601(currently, A-L and V-Z are taken by <syntax/tex.vim> itself).
2602As an example, consider how eqnarray is set up by <syntax/tex.vim>: >
2603 call TexNewMathZone("D","eqnarray",1)
2604You'll need to change "mathzone" to the name of your new math group,
2605and then to the call to it in .vim/after/syntax/tex.vim.
2606The "starform" variable, if true, implies that your new math group
2607has a starred form (ie. eqnarray*).
Bram Moolenaar071d4272004-06-13 20:20:40 +00002608
Bram Moolenaar488c6512005-08-11 20:09:58 +00002609*tex-style*
Bram Moolenaar071d4272004-06-13 20:20:40 +00002610Starting a New Style? ~
2611
2612One may use "\makeatletter" in *.tex files, thereby making the use of "@" in
2613commands available. However, since the *.tex file doesn't have one of the
2614following suffices: sty cls clo dtx ltx, the syntax highlighting will flag
2615such use of @ as an error. To solve this: >
2616
2617 :let b:tex_stylish = 1
2618 :set ft=tex
2619
2620Putting "let g:tex_stylish=1" into your <.vimrc> will make <syntax/tex.vim>
2621always accept such use of @.
2622
2623
Bram Moolenaarda2303d2005-08-30 21:55:26 +00002624TF *tf.vim* *ft-tf-syntax*
Bram Moolenaar071d4272004-06-13 20:20:40 +00002625
2626There is one option for the tf syntax highlighting.
2627
2628For syncing, minlines defaults to 100. If you prefer another value, you can
2629set "tf_minlines" to the value you desire. Example: >
2630
2631 :let tf_minlines = your choice
2632
2633
Bram Moolenaarda2303d2005-08-30 21:55:26 +00002634VIM *vim.vim* *ft-vim-syntax*
Bram Moolenaar071d4272004-06-13 20:20:40 +00002635
2636There is a tradeoff between more accurate syntax highlighting versus
2637screen updating speed. To improve accuracy, you may wish to increase
2638the g:vim_minlines variable. The g:vim_maxlines variable may be used
2639to improve screen updating rates (see |:syn-sync| for more on this).
2640
2641 g:vim_minlines : used to set synchronization minlines
2642 g:vim_maxlines : used to set synchronization maxlines
2643
2644The g:vimembedscript option allows for somewhat faster loading of syntax
2645highlighting for vim scripts at the expense of supporting syntax highlighting
2646for external scripting languages (currently perl, python, ruby, and tcl).
2647
2648 g:vimembedscript == 1 (default) <vim.vim> will allow highlighting
2649 g:vimembedscript doesn't exist of supported embedded scripting
2650 languages: perl, python, ruby and
2651 tcl.
2652
2653 g:vimembedscript == 0 Syntax highlighting for embedded
2654 scripting languages will not be
2655 loaded.
2656
2657
Bram Moolenaarda2303d2005-08-30 21:55:26 +00002658XF86CONFIG *xf86conf.vim* *ft-xf86conf-syntax*
Bram Moolenaar071d4272004-06-13 20:20:40 +00002659
2660The syntax of XF86Config file differs in XFree86 v3.x and v4.x. Both
2661variants are supported. Automatic detection is used, but is far from perfect.
2662You may need to specify the version manually. Set the variable
2663xf86conf_xfree86_version to 3 or 4 according to your XFree86 version in
2664your .vimrc. Example: >
2665 :let xf86conf_xfree86_version=3
2666When using a mix of versions, set the b:xf86conf_xfree86_version variable.
2667
2668Note that spaces and underscores in option names are not supported. Use
2669"SyncOnGreen" instead of "__s yn con gr_e_e_n" if you want the option name
2670highlighted.
2671
2672
Bram Moolenaarda2303d2005-08-30 21:55:26 +00002673XML *xml.vim* *ft-xml-syntax*
Bram Moolenaar071d4272004-06-13 20:20:40 +00002674
Bram Moolenaar13fcaaf2005-04-15 21:13:42 +00002675Xml namespaces are highlighted by default. This can be inhibited by
Bram Moolenaar071d4272004-06-13 20:20:40 +00002676setting a global variable: >
2677
2678 :let g:xml_namespace_transparent=1
2679<
2680 *xml-folding*
2681The xml syntax file provides syntax |folding| (see |:syn-fold|) between
Bram Moolenaar13fcaaf2005-04-15 21:13:42 +00002682start and end tags. This can be turned on by >
Bram Moolenaar071d4272004-06-13 20:20:40 +00002683
2684 :let g:xml_syntax_folding = 1
2685 :set foldmethod=syntax
2686
2687Note: syntax folding might slow down syntax highlighting significantly,
2688especially for large files.
2689
2690
Bram Moolenaarda2303d2005-08-30 21:55:26 +00002691X Pixmaps (XPM) *xpm.vim* *ft-xpm-syntax*
Bram Moolenaar071d4272004-06-13 20:20:40 +00002692
2693xpm.vim creates its syntax items dynamically based upon the contents of the
2694XPM file. Thus if you make changes e.g. in the color specification strings,
2695you have to source it again e.g. with ":set syn=xpm".
2696
2697To copy a pixel with one of the colors, yank a "pixel" with "yl" and insert it
2698somewhere else with "P".
2699
2700Do you want to draw with the mouse? Try the following: >
2701 :function! GetPixel()
Bram Moolenaar61660ea2006-04-07 21:40:07 +00002702 : let c = getline(".")[col(".") - 1]
Bram Moolenaar071d4272004-06-13 20:20:40 +00002703 : echo c
2704 : exe "noremap <LeftMouse> <LeftMouse>r".c
2705 : exe "noremap <LeftDrag> <LeftMouse>r".c
2706 :endfunction
2707 :noremap <RightMouse> <LeftMouse>:call GetPixel()<CR>
2708 :set guicursor=n:hor20 " to see the color beneath the cursor
2709This turns the right button into a pipette and the left button into a pen.
2710It will work with XPM files that have one character per pixel only and you
2711must not click outside of the pixel strings, but feel free to improve it.
2712
2713It will look much better with a font in a quadratic cell size, e.g. for X: >
2714 :set guifont=-*-clean-medium-r-*-*-8-*-*-*-*-80-*
2715
2716==============================================================================
27175. Defining a syntax *:syn-define* *E410*
2718
2719Vim understands three types of syntax items:
2720
Bram Moolenaarce0842a2005-07-18 21:58:11 +000027211. Keyword
Bram Moolenaar071d4272004-06-13 20:20:40 +00002722 It can only contain keyword characters, according to the 'iskeyword'
2723 option. It cannot contain other syntax items. It will only match with a
2724 complete word (there are no keyword characters before or after the match).
2725 The keyword "if" would match in "if(a=b)", but not in "ifdef x", because
2726 "(" is not a keyword character and "d" is.
2727
Bram Moolenaarce0842a2005-07-18 21:58:11 +000027282. Match
Bram Moolenaar071d4272004-06-13 20:20:40 +00002729 This is a match with a single regexp pattern.
2730
Bram Moolenaarce0842a2005-07-18 21:58:11 +000027313. Region
Bram Moolenaar071d4272004-06-13 20:20:40 +00002732 This starts at a match of the "start" regexp pattern and ends with a match
2733 with the "end" regexp pattern. Any other text can appear in between. A
2734 "skip" regexp pattern can be used to avoid matching the "end" pattern.
2735
2736Several syntax ITEMs can be put into one syntax GROUP. For a syntax group
2737you can give highlighting attributes. For example, you could have an item
2738to define a "/* .. */" comment and another one that defines a "// .." comment,
2739and put them both in the "Comment" group. You can then specify that a
2740"Comment" will be in bold font and have a blue color. You are free to make
2741one highlight group for one syntax item, or put all items into one group.
2742This depends on how you want to specify your highlighting attributes. Putting
2743each item in its own group results in having to specify the highlighting
2744for a lot of groups.
2745
2746Note that a syntax group and a highlight group are similar. For a highlight
2747group you will have given highlight attributes. These attributes will be used
2748for the syntax group with the same name.
2749
2750In case more than one item matches at the same position, the one that was
2751defined LAST wins. Thus you can override previously defined syntax items by
2752using an item that matches the same text. But a keyword always goes before a
2753match or region. And a keyword with matching case always goes before a
2754keyword with ignoring case.
2755
2756
2757PRIORITY *:syn-priority*
2758
2759When several syntax items may match, these rules are used:
2760
27611. When multiple Match or Region items start in the same position, the item
2762 defined last has priority.
27632. A Keyword has priority over Match and Region items.
27643. An item that starts in an earlier position has priority over items that
2765 start in later positions.
2766
2767
2768DEFINING CASE *:syn-case* *E390*
2769
Bram Moolenaarce0842a2005-07-18 21:58:11 +00002770:sy[ntax] case [match | ignore]
Bram Moolenaar071d4272004-06-13 20:20:40 +00002771 This defines if the following ":syntax" commands will work with
2772 matching case, when using "match", or with ignoring case, when using
2773 "ignore". Note that any items before this are not affected, and all
2774 items until the next ":syntax case" command are affected.
2775
2776
Bram Moolenaarce0842a2005-07-18 21:58:11 +00002777SPELL CHECKING *:syn-spell*
2778
2779:sy[ntax] spell [toplevel | notoplevel | default]
2780 This defines where spell checking is to be done for text that is not
2781 in a syntax item:
2782
2783 toplevel: Text is spell checked.
2784 notoplevel: Text is not spell checked.
2785 default: When there is a @Spell cluster no spell checking.
2786
2787 For text in syntax items use the @Spell and @NoSpell clusters
2788 |spell-syntax|. When there is no @Spell and no @NoSpell cluster then
2789 spell checking is done for "default" and "toplevel".
2790
2791 To activate spell checking the 'spell' option must be set.
2792
2793
Bram Moolenaar071d4272004-06-13 20:20:40 +00002794DEFINING KEYWORDS *:syn-keyword*
2795
2796:sy[ntax] keyword {group-name} [{options}] {keyword} .. [{options}]
2797
2798 This defines a number of keywords.
2799
2800 {group-name} Is a syntax group name such as "Comment".
2801 [{options}] See |:syn-arguments| below.
2802 {keyword} .. Is a list of keywords which are part of this group.
2803
2804 Example: >
2805 :syntax keyword Type int long char
2806<
2807 The {options} can be given anywhere in the line. They will apply to
2808 all keywords given, also for options that come after a keyword.
2809 These examples do exactly the same: >
2810 :syntax keyword Type contained int long char
2811 :syntax keyword Type int long contained char
2812 :syntax keyword Type int long char contained
Bram Moolenaarfc1421e2006-04-20 22:17:20 +00002813< *E789*
Bram Moolenaar071d4272004-06-13 20:20:40 +00002814 When you have a keyword with an optional tail, like Ex commands in
2815 Vim, you can put the optional characters inside [], to define all the
2816 variations at once: >
2817 :syntax keyword vimCommand ab[breviate] n[ext]
2818<
2819 Don't forget that a keyword can only be recognized if all the
2820 characters are included in the 'iskeyword' option. If one character
2821 isn't, the keyword will never be recognized.
2822 Multi-byte characters can also be used. These do not have to be in
2823 'iskeyword'.
2824
2825 A keyword always has higher priority than a match or region, the
2826 keyword is used if more than one item matches. Keywords do not nest
2827 and a keyword can't contain anything else.
2828
2829 Note that when you have a keyword that is the same as an option (even
2830 one that isn't allowed here), you can not use it. Use a match
2831 instead.
2832
2833 The maximum length of a keyword is 80 characters.
2834
2835 The same keyword can be defined multiple times, when its containment
2836 differs. For example, you can define the keyword once not contained
2837 and use one highlight group, and once contained, and use a different
Bram Moolenaar13fcaaf2005-04-15 21:13:42 +00002838 highlight group. Example: >
Bram Moolenaar071d4272004-06-13 20:20:40 +00002839 :syn keyword vimCommand tag
2840 :syn keyword vimSetting contained tag
2841< When finding "tag" outside of any syntax item, the "vimCommand"
2842 highlight group is used. When finding "tag" in a syntax item that
2843 contains "vimSetting", the "vimSetting" group is used.
2844
2845
2846DEFINING MATCHES *:syn-match*
2847
2848:sy[ntax] match {group-name} [{options}] [excludenl] {pattern} [{options}]
2849
2850 This defines one match.
2851
2852 {group-name} A syntax group name such as "Comment".
2853 [{options}] See |:syn-arguments| below.
2854 [excludenl] Don't make a pattern with the end-of-line "$"
2855 extend a containing match or region. Must be
2856 given before the pattern. |:syn-excludenl|
2857 {pattern} The search pattern that defines the match.
2858 See |:syn-pattern| below.
2859 Note that the pattern may match more than one
2860 line, which makes the match depend on where
2861 Vim starts searching for the pattern. You
2862 need to make sure syncing takes care of this.
2863
2864 Example (match a character constant): >
2865 :syntax match Character /'.'/hs=s+1,he=e-1
2866<
2867
2868DEFINING REGIONS *:syn-region* *:syn-start* *:syn-skip* *:syn-end*
2869 *E398* *E399*
2870:sy[ntax] region {group-name} [{options}]
2871 [matchgroup={group-name}]
2872 [keepend]
2873 [extend]
2874 [excludenl]
2875 start={start_pattern} ..
2876 [skip={skip_pattern}]
2877 end={end_pattern} ..
2878 [{options}]
2879
2880 This defines one region. It may span several lines.
2881
2882 {group-name} A syntax group name such as "Comment".
2883 [{options}] See |:syn-arguments| below.
2884 [matchgroup={group-name}] The syntax group to use for the following
2885 start or end pattern matches only. Not used
2886 for the text in between the matched start and
2887 end patterns. Use NONE to reset to not using
2888 a different group for the start or end match.
2889 See |:syn-matchgroup|.
2890 keepend Don't allow contained matches to go past a
2891 match with the end pattern. See
2892 |:syn-keepend|.
2893 extend Override a "keepend" for an item this region
Bram Moolenaar13fcaaf2005-04-15 21:13:42 +00002894 is contained in. See |:syn-extend|.
Bram Moolenaar071d4272004-06-13 20:20:40 +00002895 excludenl Don't make a pattern with the end-of-line "$"
2896 extend a containing match or item. Only
2897 useful for end patterns. Must be given before
2898 the patterns it applies to. |:syn-excludenl|
2899 start={start_pattern} The search pattern that defines the start of
2900 the region. See |:syn-pattern| below.
2901 skip={skip_pattern} The search pattern that defines text inside
2902 the region where not to look for the end
2903 pattern. See |:syn-pattern| below.
2904 end={end_pattern} The search pattern that defines the end of
2905 the region. See |:syn-pattern| below.
2906
2907 Example: >
2908 :syntax region String start=+"+ skip=+\\"+ end=+"+
2909<
2910 The start/skip/end patterns and the options can be given in any order.
2911 There can be zero or one skip pattern. There must be one or more
2912 start and end patterns. This means that you can omit the skip
2913 pattern, but you must give at least one start and one end pattern. It
2914 is allowed to have white space before and after the equal sign
2915 (although it mostly looks better without white space).
2916
2917 When more than one start pattern is given, a match with one of these
2918 is sufficient. This means there is an OR relation between the start
2919 patterns. The last one that matches is used. The same is true for
2920 the end patterns.
2921
2922 The search for the end pattern starts right after the start pattern.
2923 Offsets are not used for this. This implies that the match for the
2924 end pattern will never overlap with the start pattern.
2925
2926 The skip and end pattern can match across line breaks, but since the
2927 search for the pattern can start in any line it often does not do what
2928 you want. The skip pattern doesn't avoid a match of an end pattern in
2929 the next line. Use single-line patterns to avoid trouble.
2930
2931 Note: The decision to start a region is only based on a matching start
2932 pattern. There is no check for a matching end pattern. This does NOT
2933 work: >
2934 :syn region First start="(" end=":"
2935 :syn region Second start="(" end=";"
2936< The Second always matches before the First (last defined pattern has
2937 higher priority). The Second region then continues until the next
2938 ';', no matter if there is a ':' before it. Using a match does work: >
2939 :syn match First "(\_.\{-}:"
2940 :syn match Second "(\_.\{-};"
2941< This pattern matches any character or line break with "\_." and
2942 repeats that with "\{-}" (repeat as few as possible).
2943
2944 *:syn-keepend*
2945 By default, a contained match can obscure a match for the end pattern.
2946 This is useful for nesting. For example, a region that starts with
2947 "{" and ends with "}", can contain another region. An encountered "}"
2948 will then end the contained region, but not the outer region:
2949 { starts outer "{}" region
2950 { starts contained "{}" region
2951 } ends contained "{}" region
2952 } ends outer "{} region
2953 If you don't want this, the "keepend" argument will make the matching
2954 of an end pattern of the outer region also end any contained item.
2955 This makes it impossible to nest the same region, but allows for
2956 contained items to highlight parts of the end pattern, without causing
2957 that to skip the match with the end pattern. Example: >
2958 :syn match vimComment +"[^"]\+$+
2959 :syn region vimCommand start="set" end="$" contains=vimComment keepend
2960< The "keepend" makes the vimCommand always end at the end of the line,
2961 even though the contained vimComment includes a match with the <EOL>.
2962
2963 When "keepend" is not used, a match with an end pattern is retried
2964 after each contained match. When "keepend" is included, the first
2965 encountered match with an end pattern is used, truncating any
2966 contained matches.
2967 *:syn-extend*
2968 The "keepend" behavior can be changed by using the "extend" argument.
2969 When an item with "extend" is contained in an item that uses
2970 "keepend", the "keepend" is ignored and the containing region will be
2971 extended.
2972 This can be used to have some contained items extend a region while
2973 others don't. Example: >
2974
2975 :syn region htmlRef start=+<a>+ end=+</a>+ keepend contains=htmlItem,htmlScript
2976 :syn match htmlItem +<[^>]*>+ contained
2977 :syn region htmlScript start=+<script+ end=+</script[^>]*>+ contained extend
2978
2979< Here the htmlItem item does not make the htmlRef item continue
2980 further, it is only used to highlight the <> items. The htmlScript
2981 item does extend the htmlRef item.
2982
2983 Another example: >
2984 :syn region xmlFold start="<a>" end="</a>" fold transparent keepend extend
2985< This defines a region with "keepend", so that its end cannot be
2986 changed by contained items, like when the "</a>" is matched to
2987 highlight it differently. But when the xmlFold region is nested (it
2988 includes itself), the "extend" applies, so that the "</a>" of a nested
2989 region only ends that region, and not the one it is contained in.
2990
2991 *:syn-excludenl*
2992 When a pattern for a match or end pattern of a region includes a '$'
2993 to match the end-of-line, it will make a region item that it is
2994 contained in continue on the next line. For example, a match with
2995 "\\$" (backslash at the end of the line) can make a region continue
2996 that would normally stop at the end of the line. This is the default
2997 behavior. If this is not wanted, there are two ways to avoid it:
2998 1. Use "keepend" for the containing item. This will keep all
2999 contained matches from extending the match or region. It can be
3000 used when all contained items must not extend the containing item.
3001 2. Use "excludenl" in the contained item. This will keep that match
3002 from extending the containing match or region. It can be used if
3003 only some contained items must not extend the containing item.
3004 "excludenl" must be given before the pattern it applies to.
3005
3006 *:syn-matchgroup*
3007 "matchgroup" can be used to highlight the start and/or end pattern
3008 differently than the body of the region. Example: >
3009 :syntax region String matchgroup=Quote start=+"+ skip=+\\"+ end=+"+
3010< This will highlight the quotes with the "Quote" group, and the text in
3011 between with the "String" group.
3012 The "matchgroup" is used for all start and end patterns that follow,
3013 until the next "matchgroup". Use "matchgroup=NONE" to go back to not
3014 using a matchgroup.
3015
3016 In a start or end pattern that is highlighted with "matchgroup" the
3017 contained items of the region are not used. This can be used to avoid
3018 that a contained item matches in the start or end pattern match. When
3019 using "transparent", this does not apply to a start or end pattern
3020 match that is highlighted with "matchgroup".
3021
3022 Here is an example, which highlights three levels of parentheses in
3023 different colors: >
3024 :sy region par1 matchgroup=par1 start=/(/ end=/)/ contains=par2
3025 :sy region par2 matchgroup=par2 start=/(/ end=/)/ contains=par3 contained
3026 :sy region par3 matchgroup=par3 start=/(/ end=/)/ contains=par1 contained
3027 :hi par1 ctermfg=red guifg=red
3028 :hi par2 ctermfg=blue guifg=blue
3029 :hi par3 ctermfg=darkgreen guifg=darkgreen
3030
3031==============================================================================
30326. :syntax arguments *:syn-arguments*
3033
3034The :syntax commands that define syntax items take a number of arguments.
3035The common ones are explained here. The arguments may be given in any order
3036and may be mixed with patterns.
3037
3038Not all commands accept all arguments. This table shows which arguments
3039can not be used for all commands:
3040 *E395* *E396*
3041 contains oneline fold display extend ~
3042:syntax keyword - - - - -
3043:syntax match yes - yes yes yes
3044:syntax region yes yes yes yes yes
3045
3046These arguments can be used for all three commands:
3047 contained
3048 containedin
3049 nextgroup
3050 transparent
3051 skipwhite
3052 skipnl
3053 skipempty
3054
3055
3056contained *:syn-contained*
3057
3058When the "contained" argument is given, this item will not be recognized at
3059the top level, but only when it is mentioned in the "contains" field of
3060another match. Example: >
3061 :syntax keyword Todo TODO contained
3062 :syntax match Comment "//.*" contains=Todo
3063
3064
3065display *:syn-display*
3066
3067If the "display" argument is given, this item will be skipped when the
3068detected highlighting will not be displayed. This will speed up highlighting,
3069by skipping this item when only finding the syntax state for the text that is
3070to be displayed.
3071
3072Generally, you can use "display" for match and region items that meet these
3073conditions:
3074- The item does not continue past the end of a line. Example for C: A region
3075 for a "/*" comment can't contain "display", because it continues on the next
3076 line.
3077- The item does not contain items that continue past the end of the line or
3078 make it continue on the next line.
3079- The item does not change the size of any item it is contained in. Example
3080 for C: A match with "\\$" in a preprocessor match can't have "display",
3081 because it may make that preprocessor match shorter.
3082- The item does not allow other items to match that didn't match otherwise,
3083 and that item may extend the match too far. Example for C: A match for a
3084 "//" comment can't use "display", because a "/*" inside that comment would
3085 match then and start a comment which extends past the end of the line.
3086
3087Examples, for the C language, where "display" can be used:
3088- match with a number
3089- match with a label
3090
3091
3092transparent *:syn-transparent*
3093
3094If the "transparent" argument is given, this item will not be highlighted
3095itself, but will take the highlighting of the item it is contained in. This
3096is useful for syntax items that don't need any highlighting but are used
3097only to skip over a part of the text.
3098
3099The "contains=" argument is also inherited from the item it is contained in,
3100unless a "contains" argument is given for the transparent item itself. To
3101avoid that unwanted items are contained, use "contains=NONE". Example, which
3102highlights words in strings, but makes an exception for "vim": >
3103 :syn match myString /'[^']*'/ contains=myWord,myVim
3104 :syn match myWord /\<[a-z]*\>/ contained
3105 :syn match myVim /\<vim\>/ transparent contained contains=NONE
3106 :hi link myString String
3107 :hi link myWord Comment
3108Since the "myVim" match comes after "myWord" it is the preferred match (last
3109match in the same position overrules an earlier one). The "transparent"
3110argument makes the "myVim" match use the same highlighting as "myString". But
3111it does not contain anything. If the "contains=NONE" argument would be left
3112out, then "myVim" would use the contains argument from myString and allow
3113"myWord" to be contained, which will be highlighted as a Constant. This
3114happens because a contained match doesn't match inside itself in the same
3115position, thus the "myVim" match doesn't overrule the "myWord" match here.
3116
3117When you look at the colored text, it is like looking at layers of contained
3118items. The contained item is on top of the item it is contained in, thus you
3119see the contained item. When a contained item is transparent, you can look
3120through, thus you see the item it is contained in. In a picture:
3121
3122 look from here
3123
3124 | | | | | |
3125 V V V V V V
3126
3127 xxxx yyy more contained items
3128 .................... contained item (transparent)
3129 ============================= first item
3130
3131The 'x', 'y' and '=' represent a highlighted syntax item. The '.' represent a
3132transparent group.
3133
3134What you see is:
3135
3136 =======xxxx=======yyy========
3137
3138Thus you look through the transparent "....".
3139
3140
3141oneline *:syn-oneline*
3142
3143The "oneline" argument indicates that the region does not cross a line
3144boundary. It must match completely in the current line. However, when the
3145region has a contained item that does cross a line boundary, it continues on
3146the next line anyway. A contained item can be used to recognize a line
3147continuation pattern. But the "end" pattern must still match in the first
3148line, otherwise the region doesn't even start.
3149
3150When the start pattern includes a "\n" to match an end-of-line, the end
3151pattern must be found in the same line as where the start pattern ends. The
3152end pattern may also include an end-of-line. Thus the "oneline" argument
3153means that the end of the start pattern and the start of the end pattern must
3154be within one line. This can't be changed by a skip pattern that matches a
3155line break.
3156
3157
3158fold *:syn-fold*
3159
3160The "fold" argument makes the fold level increased by one for this item.
3161Example: >
3162 :syn region myFold start="{" end="}" transparent fold
3163 :syn sync fromstart
3164 :set foldmethod=syntax
3165This will make each {} block form one fold.
3166
3167The fold will start on the line where the item starts, and end where the item
3168ends. If the start and end are within the same line, there is no fold.
3169The 'foldnestmax' option limits the nesting of syntax folds.
3170{not available when Vim was compiled without |+folding| feature}
3171
3172
3173 *:syn-contains* *E405* *E406* *E407* *E408* *E409*
3174contains={groupname},..
3175
3176The "contains" argument is followed by a list of syntax group names. These
3177groups will be allowed to begin inside the item (they may extend past the
3178containing group's end). This allows for recursive nesting of matches and
3179regions. If there is no "contains" argument, no groups will be contained in
3180this item. The group names do not need to be defined before they can be used
3181here.
3182
3183contains=ALL
3184 If the only item in the contains list is "ALL", then all
3185 groups will be accepted inside the item.
3186
3187contains=ALLBUT,{group-name},..
3188 If the first item in the contains list is "ALLBUT", then all
3189 groups will be accepted inside the item, except the ones that
3190 are listed. Example: >
3191 :syntax region Block start="{" end="}" ... contains=ALLBUT,Function
3192
3193contains=TOP
3194 If the first item in the contains list is "TOP", then all
3195 groups will be accepted that don't have the "contained"
3196 argument.
3197contains=TOP,{group-name},..
3198 Like "TOP", but excluding the groups that are listed.
3199
3200contains=CONTAINED
3201 If the first item in the contains list is "CONTAINED", then
3202 all groups will be accepted that have the "contained"
3203 argument.
3204contains=CONTAINED,{group-name},..
3205 Like "CONTAINED", but excluding the groups that are
3206 listed.
3207
3208
3209The {group-name} in the "contains" list can be a pattern. All group names
3210that match the pattern will be included (or excluded, if "ALLBUT" is used).
3211The pattern cannot contain white space or a ','. Example: >
3212 ... contains=Comment.*,Keyw[0-3]
3213The matching will be done at moment the syntax command is executed. Groups
3214that are defined later will not be matched. Also, if the current syntax
3215command defines a new group, it is not matched. Be careful: When putting
3216syntax commands in a file you can't rely on groups NOT being defined, because
3217the file may have been sourced before, and ":syn clear" doesn't remove the
3218group names.
3219
3220The contained groups will also match in the start and end patterns of a
3221region. If this is not wanted, the "matchgroup" argument can be used
3222|:syn-matchgroup|. The "ms=" and "me=" offsets can be used to change the
3223region where contained items do match. Note that this may also limit the
3224area that is highlighted
3225
3226
3227containedin={groupname}... *:syn-containedin*
3228
3229The "containedin" argument is followed by a list of syntax group names. The
3230item will be allowed to begin inside these groups. This works as if the
3231containing item has a "contains=" argument that includes this item.
3232
3233The {groupname}... can be used just like for "contains", as explained above.
3234
3235This is useful when adding a syntax item afterwards. An item can be told to
3236be included inside an already existing item, without changing the definition
3237of that item. For example, to highlight a word in a C comment after loading
3238the C syntax: >
3239 :syn keyword myword HELP containedin=cComment contained
3240Note that "contained" is also used, to avoid that the item matches at the top
3241level.
3242
3243Matches for "containedin" are added to the other places where the item can
3244appear. A "contains" argument may also be added as usual. Don't forget that
3245keywords never contain another item, thus adding them to "containedin" won't
3246work.
3247
3248
3249nextgroup={groupname},.. *:syn-nextgroup*
3250
3251The "nextgroup" argument is followed by a list of syntax group names,
3252separated by commas (just like with "contains", so you can also use patterns).
3253
3254If the "nextgroup" argument is given, the mentioned syntax groups will be
3255tried for a match, after the match or region ends. If none of the groups have
3256a match, highlighting continues normally. If there is a match, this group
3257will be used, even when it is not mentioned in the "contains" field of the
3258current group. This is like giving the mentioned group priority over all
3259other groups. Example: >
3260 :syntax match ccFoobar "Foo.\{-}Bar" contains=ccFoo
3261 :syntax match ccFoo "Foo" contained nextgroup=ccFiller
3262 :syntax region ccFiller start="." matchgroup=ccBar end="Bar" contained
3263
3264This will highlight "Foo" and "Bar" differently, and only when there is a
3265"Bar" after "Foo". In the text line below, "f" shows where ccFoo is used for
3266highlighting, and "bbb" where ccBar is used. >
3267
3268 Foo asdfasd Bar asdf Foo asdf Bar asdf
3269 fff bbb fff bbb
3270
3271Note the use of ".\{-}" to skip as little as possible until the next Bar.
3272when ".*" would be used, the "asdf" in between "Bar" and "Foo" would be
3273highlighted according to the "ccFoobar" group, because the ccFooBar match
3274would include the first "Foo" and the last "Bar" in the line (see |pattern|).
3275
3276
3277skipwhite *:syn-skipwhite*
3278skipnl *:syn-skipnl*
3279skipempty *:syn-skipempty*
3280
3281These arguments are only used in combination with "nextgroup". They can be
3282used to allow the next group to match after skipping some text:
3283 skipwhite skip over space and Tab characters
3284 skipnl skip over the end of a line
3285 skipempty skip over empty lines (implies a "skipnl")
3286
3287When "skipwhite" is present, the white space is only skipped if there is no
3288next group that matches the white space.
3289
3290When "skipnl" is present, the match with nextgroup may be found in the next
3291line. This only happens when the current item ends at the end of the current
3292line! When "skipnl" is not present, the nextgroup will only be found after
3293the current item in the same line.
3294
3295When skipping text while looking for a next group, the matches for other
3296groups are ignored. Only when no next group matches, other items are tried
3297for a match again. This means that matching a next group and skipping white
3298space and <EOL>s has a higher priority than other items.
3299
3300Example: >
3301 :syn match ifstart "\<if.*" nextgroup=ifline skipwhite skipempty
3302 :syn match ifline "[^ \t].*" nextgroup=ifline skipwhite skipempty contained
3303 :syn match ifline "endif" contained
3304Note that the "[^ \t].*" match matches all non-white text. Thus it would also
3305match "endif". Therefore the "endif" match is put last, so that it takes
3306precedence.
3307Note that this example doesn't work for nested "if"s. You need to add
3308"contains" arguments to make that work (omitted for simplicity of the
3309example).
3310
3311==============================================================================
33127. Syntax patterns *:syn-pattern* *E401* *E402*
3313
3314In the syntax commands, a pattern must be surrounded by two identical
3315characters. This is like it works for the ":s" command. The most common to
3316use is the double quote. But if the pattern contains a double quote, you can
3317use another character that is not used in the pattern. Examples: >
3318 :syntax region Comment start="/\*" end="\*/"
3319 :syntax region String start=+"+ end=+"+ skip=+\\"+
3320
3321See |pattern| for the explanation of what a pattern is. Syntax patterns are
3322always interpreted like the 'magic' options is set, no matter what the actual
3323value of 'magic' is. And the patterns are interpreted like the 'l' flag is
3324not included in 'cpoptions'. This was done to make syntax files portable and
3325independent of 'compatible' and 'magic' settings.
3326
3327Try to avoid patterns that can match an empty string, such as "[a-z]*".
3328This slows down the highlighting a lot, because it matches everywhere.
3329
3330 *:syn-pattern-offset*
3331The pattern can be followed by a character offset. This can be used to
3332change the highlighted part, and to change the text area included in the
3333match or region (which only matters when trying to match other items). Both
3334are relative to the matched pattern. The character offset for a skip
3335pattern can be used to tell where to continue looking for an end pattern.
3336
3337The offset takes the form of "{what}={offset}"
3338The {what} can be one of seven strings:
3339
3340ms Match Start offset for the start of the matched text
3341me Match End offset for the end of the matched text
3342hs Highlight Start offset for where the highlighting starts
3343he Highlight End offset for where the highlighting ends
3344rs Region Start offset for where the body of a region starts
3345re Region End offset for where the body of a region ends
3346lc Leading Context offset past "leading context" of pattern
3347
3348The {offset} can be:
3349
3350s start of the matched pattern
3351s+{nr} start of the matched pattern plus {nr} chars to the right
3352s-{nr} start of the matched pattern plus {nr} chars to the left
3353e end of the matched pattern
3354e+{nr} end of the matched pattern plus {nr} chars to the right
3355e-{nr} end of the matched pattern plus {nr} chars to the left
3356{nr} (for "lc" only): start matching {nr} chars to the left
3357
3358Examples: "ms=s+1", "hs=e-2", "lc=3".
3359
3360Although all offsets are accepted after any pattern, they are not always
3361meaningful. This table shows which offsets are actually used:
3362
3363 ms me hs he rs re lc ~
3364match item yes yes yes yes - - yes
3365region item start yes - yes - yes - yes
3366region item skip - yes - - - - yes
3367region item end - yes - yes - yes yes
3368
3369Offsets can be concatenated, with a ',' in between. Example: >
3370 :syn match String /"[^"]*"/hs=s+1,he=e-1
3371<
3372 some "string" text
3373 ^^^^^^ highlighted
3374
3375Notes:
3376- There must be no white space between the pattern and the character
3377 offset(s).
3378- The highlighted area will never be outside of the matched text.
3379- A negative offset for an end pattern may not always work, because the end
3380 pattern may be detected when the highlighting should already have stopped.
3381- The start of a match cannot be in a line other than where the pattern
3382 matched. This doesn't work: "a\nb"ms=e. You can make the highlighting
3383 start in another line, this does work: "a\nb"hs=e.
3384
3385Example (match a comment but don't highlight the /* and */): >
3386 :syntax region Comment start="/\*"hs=e+1 end="\*/"he=s-1
3387<
3388 /* this is a comment */
3389 ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ highlighted
3390
3391A more complicated Example: >
3392 :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
3393<
3394 abcfoostringbarabc
3395 mmmmmmmmmmm match
Bram Moolenaar4770d092006-01-12 23:22:24 +00003396 sssrrreee highlight start/region/end ("Foo", "Exa" and "Bar")
Bram Moolenaar071d4272004-06-13 20:20:40 +00003397
3398Leading context *:syn-lc* *:syn-leading* *:syn-context*
3399
3400Note: This is an obsolete feature, only included for backwards compatibility
3401with previous Vim versions. It's now recommended to use the |/\@<=| construct
3402in the pattern.
3403
3404The "lc" offset specifies leading context -- a part of the pattern that must
3405be present, but is not considered part of the match. An offset of "lc=n" will
3406cause Vim to step back n columns before attempting the pattern match, allowing
3407characters which have already been matched in previous patterns to also be
3408used as leading context for this match. This can be used, for instance, to
3409specify that an "escaping" character must not precede the match: >
3410
3411 :syn match ZNoBackslash "[^\\]z"ms=s+1
3412 :syn match WNoBackslash "[^\\]w"lc=1
3413 :syn match Underline "_\+"
3414<
3415 ___zzzz ___wwww
3416 ^^^ ^^^ matches Underline
3417 ^ ^ matches ZNoBackslash
3418 ^^^^ matches WNoBackslash
3419
3420The "ms" offset is automatically set to the same value as the "lc" offset,
3421unless you set "ms" explicitly.
3422
3423
3424Multi-line patterns *:syn-multi-line*
3425
3426The patterns can include "\n" to match an end-of-line. Mostly this works as
3427expected, but there are a few exceptions.
3428
3429When using a start pattern with an offset, the start of the match is not
3430allowed to start in a following line. The highlighting can start in a
3431following line though.
3432
3433The skip pattern can include the "\n", but the search for an end pattern will
3434continue in the first character of the next line, also when that character is
3435matched by the skip pattern. This is because redrawing may start in any line
3436halfway a region and there is no check if the skip pattern started in a
3437previous line. For example, if the skip pattern is "a\nb" and an end pattern
3438is "b", the end pattern does match in the second line of this: >
3439 x x a
3440 b x x
3441Generally this means that the skip pattern should not match any characters
3442after the "\n".
3443
3444
3445External matches *:syn-ext-match*
3446
3447These extra regular expression items are available in region patterns:
3448
3449 */\z(* */\z(\)* *E50* *E52*
3450 \z(\) Marks the sub-expression as "external", meaning that it is can
3451 be accessed from another pattern match. Currently only usable
3452 in defining a syntax region start pattern.
3453
3454 */\z1* */\z2* */\z3* */\z4* */\z5*
3455 \z1 ... \z9 */\z6* */\z7* */\z8* */\z9* *E66* *E67*
3456 Matches the same string that was matched by the corresponding
3457 sub-expression in a previous start pattern match.
3458
3459Sometimes the start and end patterns of a region need to share a common
3460sub-expression. A common example is the "here" document in Perl and many Unix
3461shells. This effect can be achieved with the "\z" special regular expression
3462items, which marks a sub-expression as "external", in the sense that it can be
3463referenced from outside the pattern in which it is defined. The here-document
3464example, for instance, can be done like this: >
3465 :syn region hereDoc start="<<\z(\I\i*\)" end="^\z1$"
3466
3467As can be seen here, the \z actually does double duty. In the start pattern,
3468it marks the "\(\I\i*\)" sub-expression as external; in the end pattern, it
3469changes the \1 back-reference into an external reference referring to the
3470first external sub-expression in the start pattern. External references can
3471also be used in skip patterns: >
3472 :syn region foo start="start \(\I\i*\)" skip="not end \z1" end="end \z1"
3473
3474Note that normal and external sub-expressions are completely orthogonal and
3475indexed separately; for instance, if the pattern "\z(..\)\(..\)" is applied
3476to the string "aabb", then \1 will refer to "bb" and \z1 will refer to "aa".
3477Note also that external sub-expressions cannot be accessed as back-references
3478within the same pattern like normal sub-expressions. If you want to use one
3479sub-expression as both a normal and an external sub-expression, you can nest
3480the two, as in "\(\z(...\)\)".
3481
3482Note that only matches within a single line can be used. Multi-line matches
3483cannot be referred to.
3484
3485==============================================================================
34868. Syntax clusters *:syn-cluster* *E400*
3487
3488:sy[ntax] cluster {cluster-name} [contains={group-name}..]
3489 [add={group-name}..]
3490 [remove={group-name}..]
3491
3492This command allows you to cluster a list of syntax groups together under a
3493single name.
3494
3495 contains={group-name}..
3496 The cluster is set to the specified list of groups.
3497 add={group-name}..
3498 The specified groups are added to the cluster.
3499 remove={group-name}..
3500 The specified groups are removed from the cluster.
3501
3502A cluster so defined may be referred to in a contains=.., nextgroup=.., add=..
3503or remove=.. list with a "@" prefix. You can also use this notation to
3504implicitly declare a cluster before specifying its contents.
3505
3506Example: >
3507 :syntax match Thing "# [^#]\+ #" contains=@ThingMembers
3508 :syntax cluster ThingMembers contains=ThingMember1,ThingMember2
3509
3510As the previous example suggests, modifications to a cluster are effectively
3511retroactive; the membership of the cluster is checked at the last minute, so
3512to speak: >
3513 :syntax keyword A aaa
3514 :syntax keyword B bbb
3515 :syntax cluster AandB contains=A
3516 :syntax match Stuff "( aaa bbb )" contains=@AandB
3517 :syntax cluster AandB add=B " now both keywords are matched in Stuff
3518
3519This also has implications for nested clusters: >
3520 :syntax keyword A aaa
3521 :syntax keyword B bbb
3522 :syntax cluster SmallGroup contains=B
3523 :syntax cluster BigGroup contains=A,@SmallGroup
3524 :syntax match Stuff "( aaa bbb )" contains=@BigGroup
3525 :syntax cluster BigGroup remove=B " no effect, since B isn't in BigGroup
3526 :syntax cluster SmallGroup remove=B " now bbb isn't matched within Stuff
3527
3528==============================================================================
35299. Including syntax files *:syn-include* *E397*
3530
3531It is often useful for one language's syntax file to include a syntax file for
3532a related language. Depending on the exact relationship, this can be done in
3533two different ways:
3534
3535 - If top-level syntax items in the included syntax file are to be
3536 allowed at the top level in the including syntax, you can simply use
3537 the |:runtime| command: >
3538
3539 " In cpp.vim:
3540 :runtime! syntax/c.vim
3541 :unlet b:current_syntax
3542
3543< - If top-level syntax items in the included syntax file are to be
3544 contained within a region in the including syntax, you can use the
3545 ":syntax include" command:
3546
3547:sy[ntax] include [@{grouplist-name}] {file-name}
3548
3549 All syntax items declared in the included file will have the
3550 "contained" flag added. In addition, if a group list is specified,
3551 all top-level syntax items in the included file will be added to
3552 that list. >
3553
3554 " In perl.vim:
3555 :syntax include @Pod <sfile>:p:h/pod.vim
3556 :syntax region perlPOD start="^=head" end="^=cut" contains=@Pod
3557<
3558 When {file-name} is an absolute path (starts with "/", "c:", "$VAR"
3559 or "<sfile>") that file is sourced. When it is a relative path
3560 (e.g., "syntax/pod.vim") the file is searched for in 'runtimepath'.
3561 All matching files are loaded. Using a relative path is
3562 recommended, because it allows a user to replace the included file
3563 with his own version, without replacing the file that does the ":syn
3564 include".
3565
3566==============================================================================
356710. Synchronizing *:syn-sync* *E403* *E404*
3568
3569Vim wants to be able to start redrawing in any position in the document. To
3570make this possible it needs to know the syntax state at the position where
3571redrawing starts.
3572
3573:sy[ntax] sync [ccomment [group-name] | minlines={N} | ...]
3574
3575There are four ways to synchronize:
35761. Always parse from the start of the file.
3577 |:syn-sync-first|
35782. Based on C-style comments. Vim understands how C-comments work and can
3579 figure out if the current line starts inside or outside a comment.
3580 |:syn-sync-second|
35813. Jumping back a certain number of lines and start parsing there.
3582 |:syn-sync-third|
35834. Searching backwards in the text for a pattern to sync on.
3584 |:syn-sync-fourth|
3585
3586 *:syn-sync-maxlines* *:syn-sync-minlines*
3587For the last three methods, the line range where the parsing can start is
3588limited by "minlines" and "maxlines".
3589
3590If the "minlines={N}" argument is given, the parsing always starts at least
3591that many lines backwards. This can be used if the parsing may take a few
3592lines before it's correct, or when it's not possible to use syncing.
3593
3594If the "maxlines={N}" argument is given, the number of lines that are searched
3595for a comment or syncing pattern is restricted to N lines backwards (after
3596adding "minlines"). This is useful if you have few things to sync on and a
3597slow machine. Example: >
3598 :syntax sync ccomment maxlines=500
3599<
3600 *:syn-sync-linebreaks*
3601When using a pattern that matches multiple lines, a change in one line may
3602cause a pattern to no longer match in a previous line. This means has to
3603start above where the change was made. How many lines can be specified with
3604the "linebreaks" argument. For example, when a pattern may include one line
3605break use this: >
3606 :syntax sync linebreaks=1
3607The result is that redrawing always starts at least one line before where a
3608change was made. The default value for "linebreaks" is zero. Usually the
3609value for "minlines" is bigger than "linebreaks".
3610
3611
3612First syncing method: *:syn-sync-first*
3613>
3614 :syntax sync fromstart
3615
3616The file will be parsed from the start. This makes syntax highlighting
3617accurate, but can be slow for long files. Vim caches previously parsed text,
3618so that it's only slow when parsing the text for the first time. However,
3619when making changes some part of the next needs to be parsed again (worst
3620case: to the end of the file).
3621
3622Using "fromstart" is equivalent to using "minlines" with a very large number.
3623
3624
3625Second syncing method: *:syn-sync-second* *:syn-sync-ccomment*
3626
3627For the second method, only the "ccomment" argument needs to be given.
3628Example: >
3629 :syntax sync ccomment
3630
3631When Vim finds that the line where displaying starts is inside a C-style
3632comment, the last region syntax item with the group-name "Comment" will be
3633used. This requires that there is a region with the group-name "Comment"!
3634An alternate group name can be specified, for example: >
3635 :syntax sync ccomment javaComment
3636This means that the last item specified with "syn region javaComment" will be
3637used for the detected C comment region. This only works properly if that
3638region does have a start pattern "\/*" and an end pattern "*\/".
3639
3640The "maxlines" argument can be used to restrict the search to a number of
3641lines. The "minlines" argument can be used to at least start a number of
3642lines back (e.g., for when there is some construct that only takes a few
3643lines, but it hard to sync on).
3644
3645Note: Syncing on a C comment doesn't work properly when strings are used
3646that cross a line and contain a "*/". Since letting strings cross a line
3647is a bad programming habit (many compilers give a warning message), and the
3648chance of a "*/" appearing inside a comment is very small, this restriction
3649is hardly ever noticed.
3650
3651
3652Third syncing method: *:syn-sync-third*
3653
3654For the third method, only the "minlines={N}" argument needs to be given.
3655Vim will subtract {N} from the line number and start parsing there. This
3656means {N} extra lines need to be parsed, which makes this method a bit slower.
3657Example: >
3658 :syntax sync minlines=50
3659
3660"lines" is equivalent to "minlines" (used by older versions).
3661
3662
3663Fourth syncing method: *:syn-sync-fourth*
3664
3665The idea is to synchronize on the end of a few specific regions, called a
3666sync pattern. Only regions can cross lines, so when we find the end of some
3667region, we might be able to know in which syntax item we are. The search
3668starts in the line just above the one where redrawing starts. From there
3669the search continues backwards in the file.
3670
3671This works just like the non-syncing syntax items. You can use contained
3672matches, nextgroup, etc. But there are a few differences:
3673- Keywords cannot be used.
3674- The syntax items with the "sync" keyword form a completely separated group
3675 of syntax items. You can't mix syncing groups and non-syncing groups.
3676- The matching works backwards in the buffer (line by line), instead of
3677 forwards.
3678- A line continuation pattern can be given. It is used to decide which group
3679 of lines need to be searched like they were one line. This means that the
3680 search for a match with the specified items starts in the first of the
3681 consecutive that contain the continuation pattern.
3682- When using "nextgroup" or "contains", this only works within one line (or
3683 group of continued lines).
3684- When using a region, it must start and end in the same line (or group of
3685 continued lines). Otherwise the end is assumed to be at the end of the
3686 line (or group of continued lines).
3687- When a match with a sync pattern is found, the rest of the line (or group of
3688 continued lines) is searched for another match. The last match is used.
3689 This is used when a line can contain both the start end the end of a region
3690 (e.g., in a C-comment like /* this */, the last "*/" is used).
3691
3692There are two ways how a match with a sync pattern can be used:
36931. Parsing for highlighting starts where redrawing starts (and where the
3694 search for the sync pattern started). The syntax group that is expected
3695 to be valid there must be specified. This works well when the regions
3696 that cross lines cannot contain other regions.
36972. Parsing for highlighting continues just after the match. The syntax group
3698 that is expected to be present just after the match must be specified.
3699 This can be used when the previous method doesn't work well. It's much
3700 slower, because more text needs to be parsed.
3701Both types of sync patterns can be used at the same time.
3702
3703Besides the sync patterns, other matches and regions can be specified, to
3704avoid finding unwanted matches.
3705
3706[The reason that the sync patterns are given separately, is that mostly the
3707search for the sync point can be much simpler than figuring out the
3708highlighting. The reduced number of patterns means it will go (much)
3709faster.]
3710
3711 *syn-sync-grouphere* *E393* *E394*
3712 :syntax sync match {sync-group-name} grouphere {group-name} "pattern" ..
3713
3714 Define a match that is used for syncing. {group-name} is the
3715 name of a syntax group that follows just after the match. Parsing
3716 of the text for highlighting starts just after the match. A region
3717 must exist for this {group-name}. The first one defined will be used.
3718 "NONE" can be used for when there is no syntax group after the match.
3719
3720 *syn-sync-groupthere*
3721 :syntax sync match {sync-group-name} groupthere {group-name} "pattern" ..
3722
3723 Like "grouphere", but {group-name} is the name of a syntax group that
3724 is to be used at the start of the line where searching for the sync
3725 point started. The text between the match and the start of the sync
3726 pattern searching is assumed not to change the syntax highlighting.
3727 For example, in C you could search backwards for "/*" and "*/". If
3728 "/*" is found first, you know that you are inside a comment, so the
3729 "groupthere" is "cComment". If "*/" is found first, you know that you
3730 are not in a comment, so the "groupthere" is "NONE". (in practice
3731 it's a bit more complicated, because the "/*" and "*/" could appear
3732 inside a string. That's left as an exercise to the reader...).
3733
3734 :syntax sync match ..
3735 :syntax sync region ..
3736
3737 Without a "groupthere" argument. Define a region or match that is
3738 skipped while searching for a sync point.
3739
Bram Moolenaar5313dcb2005-02-22 08:56:13 +00003740 *syn-sync-linecont*
Bram Moolenaar071d4272004-06-13 20:20:40 +00003741 :syntax sync linecont {pattern}
3742
3743 When {pattern} matches in a line, it is considered to continue in
3744 the next line. This means that the search for a sync point will
3745 consider the lines to be concatenated.
3746
3747If the "maxlines={N}" argument is given too, the number of lines that are
3748searched for a match is restricted to N. This is useful if you have very
3749few things to sync on and a slow machine. Example: >
3750 :syntax sync maxlines=100
3751
3752You can clear all sync settings with: >
3753 :syntax sync clear
3754
3755You can clear specific sync patterns with: >
3756 :syntax sync clear {sync-group-name} ..
3757
3758==============================================================================
375911. Listing syntax items *:syntax* *:sy* *:syn* *:syn-list*
3760
Bram Moolenaar482aaeb2005-09-29 18:26:07 +00003761This command lists all the syntax items: >
Bram Moolenaar071d4272004-06-13 20:20:40 +00003762
3763 :sy[ntax] [list]
3764
3765To show the syntax items for one syntax group: >
3766
3767 :sy[ntax] list {group-name}
3768
3769To list the syntax groups in one cluster: *E392* >
3770
3771 :sy[ntax] list @{cluster-name}
3772
3773See above for other arguments for the ":syntax" command.
3774
3775Note that the ":syntax" command can be abbreviated to ":sy", although ":syn"
3776is mostly used, because it looks better.
3777
3778==============================================================================
377912. Highlight command *:highlight* *:hi* *E28* *E411* *E415*
3780
3781There are three types of highlight groups:
3782- The ones used for specific languages. For these the name starts with the
3783 name of the language. Many of these don't have any attributes, but are
3784 linked to a group of the second type.
3785- The ones used for all syntax languages.
3786- The ones used for the 'highlight' option.
3787 *hitest.vim*
3788You can see all the groups currently active with this command: >
3789 :so $VIMRUNTIME/syntax/hitest.vim
3790This will open a new window containing all highlight group names, displayed
3791in their own color.
3792
3793 *:colo* *:colorscheme* *E185*
3794:colo[rscheme] {name} Load color scheme {name}. This searches 'runtimepath'
3795 for the file "colors/{name}.vim. The first one that
3796 is found is loaded.
3797 To see the name of the currently active color scheme
3798 (if there is one): >
3799 :echo g:colors_name
3800< Doesn't work recursively, thus you can't use
3801 ":colorscheme" in a color scheme script.
Bram Moolenaarcfbc5ee2004-07-02 15:38:35 +00003802 After the color scheme has been loaded the
3803 |ColorScheme| autocommand event is triggered.
Bram Moolenaard4755bb2004-09-02 19:12:26 +00003804 For info about writing a colorscheme file: >
3805 :edit $VIMRUNTIME/colors/README.txt
Bram Moolenaar071d4272004-06-13 20:20:40 +00003806
3807:hi[ghlight] List all the current highlight groups that have
3808 attributes set.
3809
3810:hi[ghlight] {group-name}
3811 List one highlight group.
3812
3813:hi[ghlight] clear Reset all highlighting to the defaults. Removes all
3814 highlighting for groups added by the user!
3815 Uses the current value of 'background' to decide which
3816 default colors to use.
3817
3818:hi[ghlight] clear {group-name}
3819:hi[ghlight] {group-name} NONE
3820 Disable the highlighting for one highlight group. It
3821 is _not_ set back to the default colors.
3822
3823:hi[ghlight] [default] {group-name} {key}={arg} ..
3824 Add a highlight group, or change the highlighting for
3825 an existing group.
3826 See |highlight-args| for the {key}={arg} arguments.
3827 See |:highlight-default| for the optional [default]
3828 argument.
3829
3830Normally a highlight group is added once when starting up. This sets the
3831default values for the highlighting. After that, you can use additional
3832highlight commands to change the arguments that you want to set to non-default
3833values. The value "NONE" can be used to switch the value off or go back to
3834the default value.
3835
3836A simple way to change colors is with the |:colorscheme| command. This loads
3837a file with ":highlight" commands such as this: >
3838
3839 :hi Comment gui=bold
3840
3841Note that all settings that are not included remain the same, only the
3842specified field is used, and settings are merged with previous ones. So, the
3843result is like this single command has been used: >
3844 :hi Comment term=bold ctermfg=Cyan guifg=#80a0ff gui=bold
3845<
Bram Moolenaarae5bce12005-08-15 21:41:48 +00003846 *:highlight-verbose*
Bram Moolenaar661b1822005-07-28 22:36:45 +00003847When listing a highlight group and 'verbose' is non-zero, the listing will
3848also tell where it was last set. Example: >
3849 :verbose hi Comment
3850< Comment xxx term=bold ctermfg=4 guifg=Blue ~
3851 Last set from /home/mool/vim/vim7/runtime/syntax/syncolor.vim ~
3852
Bram Moolenaar8aff23a2005-08-19 20:40:30 +00003853When ":hi clear" is used then the script where this command is used will be
3854mentioned for the default values. See |:verbose-cmd| for more information.
Bram Moolenaar661b1822005-07-28 22:36:45 +00003855
Bram Moolenaar071d4272004-06-13 20:20:40 +00003856 *highlight-args* *E416* *E417* *E423*
3857There are three types of terminals for highlighting:
3858term a normal terminal (vt100, xterm)
3859cterm a color terminal (MS-DOS console, color-xterm, these have the "Co"
3860 termcap entry)
3861gui the GUI
3862
3863For each type the highlighting can be given. This makes it possible to use
3864the same syntax file on all terminals, and use the optimal highlighting.
3865
38661. highlight arguments for normal terminals
3867
Bram Moolenaar75c50c42005-06-04 22:06:24 +00003868 *bold* *underline* *undercurl*
3869 *inverse* *italic* *standout*
Bram Moolenaar071d4272004-06-13 20:20:40 +00003870term={attr-list} *attr-list* *highlight-term* *E418*
3871 attr-list is a comma separated list (without spaces) of the
3872 following items (in any order):
3873 bold
3874 underline
Bram Moolenaar5409c052005-03-18 20:27:04 +00003875 undercurl not always available
Bram Moolenaar071d4272004-06-13 20:20:40 +00003876 reverse
3877 inverse same as reverse
3878 italic
3879 standout
3880 NONE no attributes used (used to reset it)
3881
3882 Note that "bold" can be used here and by using a bold font. They
3883 have the same effect.
Bram Moolenaar5409c052005-03-18 20:27:04 +00003884 "undercurl" is a curly underline. When "undercurl" is not possible
3885 then "underline" is used. In general "undercurl" is only available in
Bram Moolenaar910f66f2006-04-05 20:41:53 +00003886 the GUI. The color is set with |highlight-guisp|.
Bram Moolenaar071d4272004-06-13 20:20:40 +00003887
3888start={term-list} *highlight-start* *E422*
3889stop={term-list} *term-list* *highlight-stop*
3890 These lists of terminal codes can be used to get
3891 non-standard attributes on a terminal.
3892
3893 The escape sequence specified with the "start" argument
3894 is written before the characters in the highlighted
3895 area. It can be anything that you want to send to the
3896 terminal to highlight this area. The escape sequence
3897 specified with the "stop" argument is written after the
3898 highlighted area. This should undo the "start" argument.
3899 Otherwise the screen will look messed up.
3900
3901 The {term-list} can have two forms:
3902
3903 1. A string with escape sequences.
3904 This is any string of characters, except that it can't start with
3905 "t_" and blanks are not allowed. The <> notation is recognized
3906 here, so you can use things like "<Esc>" and "<Space>". Example:
3907 start=<Esc>[27h;<Esc>[<Space>r;
3908
3909 2. A list of terminal codes.
3910 Each terminal code has the form "t_xx", where "xx" is the name of
3911 the termcap entry. The codes have to be separated with commas.
3912 White space is not allowed. Example:
3913 start=t_C1,t_BL
3914 The terminal codes must exist for this to work.
3915
3916
39172. highlight arguments for color terminals
3918
3919cterm={attr-list} *highlight-cterm*
3920 See above for the description of {attr-list} |attr-list|.
3921 The "cterm" argument is likely to be different from "term", when
3922 colors are used. For example, in a normal terminal comments could
3923 be underlined, in a color terminal they can be made Blue.
3924 Note: Many terminals (e.g., DOS console) can't mix these attributes
3925 with coloring. Use only one of "cterm=" OR "ctermfg=" OR "ctermbg=".
3926
3927ctermfg={color-nr} *highlight-ctermfg* *E421*
3928ctermbg={color-nr} *highlight-ctermbg*
3929 The {color-nr} argument is a color number. Its range is zero to
3930 (not including) the number given by the termcap entry "Co".
3931 The actual color with this number depends on the type of terminal
3932 and its settings. Sometimes the color also depends on the settings of
3933 "cterm". For example, on some systems "cterm=bold ctermfg=3" gives
3934 another color, on others you just get color 3.
3935
3936 For an xterm this depends on your resources, and is a bit
3937 unpredictable. See your xterm documentation for the defaults. The
3938 colors for a color-xterm can be changed from the .Xdefaults file.
3939 Unfortunately this means that it's not possible to get the same colors
3940 for each user. See |xterm-color| for info about color xterms.
3941
3942 The MSDOS standard colors are fixed (in a console window), so these
3943 have been used for the names. But the meaning of color names in X11
3944 are fixed, so these color settings have been used, to make the
3945 highlighting settings portable (complicated, isn't it?). The
3946 following names are recognized, with the color number used:
3947
3948 *cterm-colors*
3949 NR-16 NR-8 COLOR NAME ~
3950 0 0 Black
3951 1 4 DarkBlue
3952 2 2 DarkGreen
3953 3 6 DarkCyan
3954 4 1 DarkRed
3955 5 5 DarkMagenta
3956 6 3 Brown, DarkYellow
3957 7 7 LightGray, LightGrey, Gray, Grey
3958 8 0* DarkGray, DarkGrey
3959 9 4* Blue, LightBlue
3960 10 2* Green, LightGreen
3961 11 6* Cyan, LightCyan
3962 12 1* Red, LightRed
3963 13 5* Magenta, LightMagenta
3964 14 3* Yellow, LightYellow
3965 15 7* White
3966
3967 The number under "NR-16" is used for 16-color terminals ('t_Co'
3968 greater than or equal to 16). The number under "NR-8" is used for
3969 8-color terminals ('t_Co' less than 16). The '*' indicates that the
3970 bold attribute is set for ctermfg. In many 8-color terminals (e.g.,
3971 "linux"), this causes the bright colors to appear. This doesn't work
3972 for background colors! Without the '*' the bold attribute is removed.
3973 If you want to set the bold attribute in a different way, put a
3974 "cterm=" argument AFTER the "ctermfg=" or "ctermbg=" argument. Or use
3975 a number instead of a color name.
3976
3977 The case of the color names is ignored.
3978 Note that for 16 color ansi style terminals (including xterms), the
Bram Moolenaar13fcaaf2005-04-15 21:13:42 +00003979 numbers in the NR-8 column is used. Here '*' means 'add 8' so that Blue
Bram Moolenaar071d4272004-06-13 20:20:40 +00003980 is 12, DarkGray is 8 etc.
3981
3982 Note that for some color terminals these names may result in the wrong
3983 colors!
3984
3985 *:hi-normal-cterm*
3986 When setting the "ctermfg" or "ctermbg" colors for the Normal group,
3987 these will become the colors used for the non-highlighted text.
3988 Example: >
3989 :highlight Normal ctermfg=grey ctermbg=darkblue
3990< When setting the "ctermbg" color for the Normal group, the
3991 'background' option will be adjusted automatically. This causes the
3992 highlight groups that depend on 'background' to change! This means
3993 you should set the colors for Normal first, before setting other
3994 colors.
3995 When a colorscheme is being used, changing 'background' causes it to
3996 be reloaded, which may reset all colors (including Normal). First
3997 delete the "colors_name" variable when you don't want this.
3998
3999 When you have set "ctermfg" or "ctermbg" for the Normal group, Vim
4000 needs to reset the color when exiting. This is done with the "op"
4001 termcap entry |t_op|. If this doesn't work correctly, try setting the
4002 't_op' option in your .vimrc.
4003 *E419* *E420*
4004 When Vim knows the normal foreground and background colors, "fg" and
4005 "bg" can be used as color names. This only works after setting the
4006 colors for the Normal group and for the MS-DOS console. Example, for
4007 reverse video: >
4008 :highlight Visual ctermfg=bg ctermbg=fg
4009< Note that the colors are used that are valid at the moment this
4010 command are given. If the Normal group colors are changed later, the
4011 "fg" and "bg" colors will not be adjusted.
4012
4013
40143. highlight arguments for the GUI
4015
4016gui={attr-list} *highlight-gui*
4017 These give the attributes to use in the GUI mode.
4018 See |attr-list| for a description.
4019 Note that "bold" can be used here and by using a bold font. They
4020 have the same effect.
4021 Note that the attributes are ignored for the "Normal" group.
4022
4023font={font-name} *highlight-font*
4024 font-name is the name of a font, as it is used on the system Vim
4025 runs on. For X11 this is a complicated name, for example: >
4026 font=-misc-fixed-bold-r-normal--14-130-75-75-c-70-iso8859-1
4027<
4028 The font-name "NONE" can be used to revert to the default font.
4029 When setting the font for the "Normal" group, this becomes the default
4030 font (until the 'guifont' option is changed; the last one set is
4031 used).
4032 The following only works with Motif and Athena, not with other GUIs:
4033 When setting the font for the "Menu" group, the menus will be changed.
4034 When setting the font for the "Tooltip" group, the tooltips will be
4035 changed.
4036 All fonts used, except for Menu and Tooltip, should be of the same
4037 character size as the default font! Otherwise redrawing problems will
4038 occur.
4039
4040guifg={color-name} *highlight-guifg*
4041guibg={color-name} *highlight-guibg*
Bram Moolenaar5409c052005-03-18 20:27:04 +00004042guisp={color-name} *highlight-guisp*
4043 These give the foreground (guifg), background (guibg) and special
Bram Moolenaar7df351e2006-01-23 22:30:28 +00004044 (guisp) color to use in the GUI. "guisp" is used for undercurl.
4045 There are a few special names:
Bram Moolenaar071d4272004-06-13 20:20:40 +00004046 NONE no color (transparent)
4047 bg use normal background color
4048 background use normal background color
4049 fg use normal foreground color
4050 foreground use normal foreground color
4051 To use a color name with an embedded space or other special character,
4052 put it in single quotes. The single quote cannot be used then.
4053 Example: >
4054 :hi comment guifg='salmon pink'
4055<
4056 *gui-colors*
4057 Suggested color names (these are available on most systems):
4058 Red LightRed DarkRed
4059 Green LightGreen DarkGreen SeaGreen
4060 Blue LightBlue DarkBlue SlateBlue
4061 Cyan LightCyan DarkCyan
4062 Magenta LightMagenta DarkMagenta
4063 Yellow LightYellow Brown DarkYellow
4064 Gray LightGray DarkGray
4065 Black White
4066 Orange Purple Violet
4067
4068 In the Win32 GUI version, additional system colors are available. See
4069 |win32-colors|.
4070
4071 You can also specify a color by its Red, Green and Blue values.
4072 The format is "#rrggbb", where
4073 "rr" is the Red value
Bram Moolenaar071d4272004-06-13 20:20:40 +00004074 "gg" is the Green value
Bram Moolenaar5409c052005-03-18 20:27:04 +00004075 "bb" is the Blue value
Bram Moolenaar071d4272004-06-13 20:20:40 +00004076 All values are hexadecimal, range from "00" to "ff". Examples: >
4077 :highlight Comment guifg=#11f0c3 guibg=#ff00ff
4078<
4079 *highlight-groups* *highlight-default*
4080These are the default highlighting groups. These groups are used by the
4081'highlight' option default. Note that the highlighting depends on the value
4082of 'background'. You can see the current settings with the ":highlight"
4083command.
4084 *hl-Cursor*
4085Cursor the character under the cursor
4086 *hl-CursorIM*
4087CursorIM like Cursor, but used when in IME mode |CursorIM|
Bram Moolenaar5316eee2006-03-12 22:11:10 +00004088 *hl-CursorColumn*
4089CursorColumn the screen column that the cursor is in when 'cursorcolumn' is
4090 set
4091 *hl-CursorLine*
4092CursorLine the screen line that the cursor is in when 'cursorline' is
4093 set
Bram Moolenaar071d4272004-06-13 20:20:40 +00004094 *hl-Directory*
4095Directory directory names (and other special names in listings)
4096 *hl-DiffAdd*
4097DiffAdd diff mode: Added line |diff.txt|
4098 *hl-DiffChange*
4099DiffChange diff mode: Changed line |diff.txt|
4100 *hl-DiffDelete*
4101DiffDelete diff mode: Deleted line |diff.txt|
4102 *hl-DiffText*
4103DiffText diff mode: Changed text within a changed line |diff.txt|
4104 *hl-ErrorMsg*
4105ErrorMsg error messages on the command line
4106 *hl-VertSplit*
4107VertSplit the column separating vertically split windows
4108 *hl-Folded*
4109Folded line used for closed folds
4110 *hl-FoldColumn*
4111FoldColumn 'foldcolumn'
4112 *hl-SignColumn*
4113SignColumn column where |signs| are displayed
4114 *hl-IncSearch*
4115IncSearch 'incsearch' highlighting; also used for the text replaced with
4116 ":s///c"
4117 *hl-LineNr*
Bram Moolenaarfd2ac762006-03-01 22:09:21 +00004118LineNr Line number for ":number" and ":#" commands, and when 'number'
Bram Moolenaar071d4272004-06-13 20:20:40 +00004119 option is set.
Bram Moolenaarfd2ac762006-03-01 22:09:21 +00004120 *hl-MatchParen*
4121MatchParen The character under the cursor or just before it, if it
4122 is a paired bracket, and its match. |pi_paren.txt|
4123
Bram Moolenaar071d4272004-06-13 20:20:40 +00004124 *hl-ModeMsg*
4125ModeMsg 'showmode' message (e.g., "-- INSERT --")
4126 *hl-MoreMsg*
4127MoreMsg |more-prompt|
4128 *hl-NonText*
4129NonText '~' and '@' at the end of the window, characters from
4130 'showbreak' and other characters that do not really exist in
4131 the text (e.g., ">" displayed when a double-wide character
4132 doesn't fit at the end of the line).
4133 *hl-Normal*
4134Normal normal text
Bram Moolenaar1c7715d2005-10-03 22:02:18 +00004135 *hl-Pmenu*
4136Pmenu Popup menu: normal item.
4137 *hl-PmenuSel*
4138PmenuSel Popup menu: selected item.
4139 *hl-PmenuSbar*
4140PmenuSbar Popup menu: scrollbar.
4141 *hl-PmenuThumb*
4142PmenuThumb Popup menu: Thumb of the scrollbar.
Bram Moolenaar071d4272004-06-13 20:20:40 +00004143 *hl-Question*
4144Question |hit-enter| prompt and yes/no questions
4145 *hl-Search*
4146Search Last search pattern highlighting (see 'hlsearch').
4147 Also used for highlighting the current line in the quickfix
4148 window and similar items that need to stand out.
4149 *hl-SpecialKey*
4150SpecialKey Meta and special keys listed with ":map", also for text used
4151 to show unprintable characters in the text, 'listchars'.
4152 Generally: text that is displayed differently from what it
4153 really is.
Bram Moolenaar217ad922005-03-20 22:37:15 +00004154 *hl-SpellBad*
4155SpellBad Word that is not recognized by the spellchecker. |spell|
4156 This will be combined with the highlighting used otherwise.
Bram Moolenaar53180ce2005-07-05 21:48:14 +00004157 *hl-SpellCap*
4158SpellCap Word that should start with a capital. |spell|
4159 This will be combined with the highlighting used otherwise.
Bram Moolenaar217ad922005-03-20 22:37:15 +00004160 *hl-SpellLocal*
4161SpellLocal Word that is recognized by the spellchecker as one that is
4162 used in another region. |spell|
4163 This will be combined with the highlighting used otherwise.
4164 *hl-SpellRare*
4165SpellRare Word that is recognized by the spellchecker as one that is
4166 hardly ever used. |spell|
4167 This will be combined with the highlighting used otherwise.
Bram Moolenaar071d4272004-06-13 20:20:40 +00004168 *hl-StatusLine*
4169StatusLine status line of current window
4170 *hl-StatusLineNC*
4171StatusLineNC status lines of not-current windows
4172 Note: if this is equal to "StatusLine" Vim will use "^^^" in
4173 the status line of the current window.
Bram Moolenaarfaa959a2006-02-20 21:37:40 +00004174 *hl-TabLine*
4175TabLine tab pages line, not active tab page label
4176 *hl-TabLineFill*
4177TabLineFill tab pages line, where there are no labels
4178 *hl-TabLineSel*
4179TabLineSel tab pages line, active tab page label
Bram Moolenaar071d4272004-06-13 20:20:40 +00004180 *hl-Title*
4181Title titles for output from ":set all", ":autocmd" etc.
4182 *hl-Visual*
4183Visual Visual mode selection
4184 *hl-VisualNOS*
4185VisualNOS Visual mode selection when vim is "Not Owning the Selection".
4186 Only X11 Gui's |gui-x11| and |xterm-clipboard| supports this.
4187 *hl-WarningMsg*
4188WarningMsg warning messages
4189 *hl-WildMenu*
4190WildMenu current match in 'wildmenu' completion
4191
Bram Moolenaarf75a9632005-09-13 21:20:47 +00004192 *hl-User1* *hl-User1..9* *hl-User9*
Bram Moolenaar071d4272004-06-13 20:20:40 +00004193The 'statusline' syntax allows the use of 9 different highlights in the
Bram Moolenaar13fcaaf2005-04-15 21:13:42 +00004194statusline and ruler (via 'rulerformat'). The names are User1 to User9.
Bram Moolenaar071d4272004-06-13 20:20:40 +00004195
4196For the GUI you can use these groups to set the colors for the menu,
4197scrollbars and tooltips. They don't have defaults. This doesn't work for the
4198Win32 GUI. Only three highlight arguments have any effect here: font, guibg,
4199and guifg.
4200
4201 *hl-Menu*
4202Menu Current font, background and foreground colors of the menus.
4203 Also used for the toolbar.
4204 Applicable highlight arguments: font, guibg, guifg.
4205
4206 NOTE: For Motif and Athena the font argument actually
4207 specifies a fontset at all times, no matter if 'guifontset' is
4208 empty, and as such it is tied to the current |:language| when
4209 set.
4210
4211 *hl-Scrollbar*
4212Scrollbar Current background and foreground of the main window's
4213 scrollbars.
4214 Applicable highlight arguments: guibg, guifg.
4215
4216 *hl-Tooltip*
4217Tooltip Current font, background and foreground of the tooltips.
4218 Applicable highlight arguments: font, guibg, guifg.
4219
4220 NOTE: For Motif and Athena the font argument actually
4221 specifies a fontset at all times, no matter if 'guifontset' is
4222 empty, and as such it is tied to the current |:language| when
4223 set.
4224
4225==============================================================================
422613. Linking groups *:hi-link* *:highlight-link* *E412* *E413*
4227
4228When you want to use the same highlighting for several syntax groups, you
4229can do this more easily by linking the groups into one common highlight
4230group, and give the color attributes only for that group.
4231
4232To set a link:
4233
4234 :hi[ghlight][!] [default] link {from-group} {to-group}
4235
4236To remove a link:
4237
4238 :hi[ghlight][!] [default] link {from-group} NONE
4239
4240Notes: *E414*
4241- If the {from-group} and/or {to-group} doesn't exist, it is created. You
4242 don't get an error message for a non-existing group.
4243- As soon as you use a ":highlight" command for a linked group, the link is
4244 removed.
4245- If there are already highlight settings for the {from-group}, the link is
4246 not made, unless the '!' is given. For a ":highlight link" command in a
4247 sourced file, you don't get an error message. This can be used to skip
4248 links for groups that already have settings.
4249
4250 *:hi-default* *:highlight-default*
4251The [default] argument is used for setting the default highlighting for a
4252group. If highlighting has already been specified for the group the command
4253will be ignored. Also when there is an existing link.
4254
4255Using [default] is especially useful to overrule the highlighting of a
4256specific syntax file. For example, the C syntax file contains: >
4257 :highlight default link cComment Comment
4258If you like Question highlighting for C comments, put this in your vimrc file: >
4259 :highlight link cComment Question
4260Without the "default" in the C syntax file, the highlighting would be
4261overruled when the syntax file is loaded.
4262
4263==============================================================================
426414. Cleaning up *:syn-clear* *E391*
4265
4266If you want to clear the syntax stuff for the current buffer, you can use this
4267command: >
4268 :syntax clear
4269
4270This command should be used when you want to switch off syntax highlighting,
4271or when you want to switch to using another syntax. It's normally not needed
4272in a syntax file itself, because syntax is cleared by the autocommands that
4273load the syntax file.
4274The command also deletes the "b:current_syntax" variable, since no syntax is
4275loaded after this command.
4276
4277If you want to disable syntax highlighting for all buffers, you need to remove
4278the autocommands that load the syntax files: >
4279 :syntax off
4280
4281What this command actually does, is executing the command >
4282 :source $VIMRUNTIME/syntax/nosyntax.vim
4283See the "nosyntax.vim" file for details. Note that for this to work
4284$VIMRUNTIME must be valid. See |$VIMRUNTIME|.
4285
4286To clean up specific syntax groups for the current buffer: >
4287 :syntax clear {group-name} ..
4288This removes all patterns and keywords for {group-name}.
4289
4290To clean up specific syntax group lists for the current buffer: >
4291 :syntax clear @{grouplist-name} ..
4292This sets {grouplist-name}'s contents to an empty list.
4293
4294 *:syntax-reset* *:syn-reset*
4295If you have changed the colors and messed them up, use this command to get the
4296defaults back: >
4297
4298 :syntax reset
4299
4300This doesn't change the colors for the 'highlight' option.
4301
4302Note that the syntax colors that you set in your vimrc file will also be reset
4303back to their Vim default.
4304Note that if you are using a color scheme, the colors defined by the color
4305scheme for syntax highlighting will be lost.
4306
4307What this actually does is: >
4308
4309 let g:syntax_cmd = "reset"
4310 runtime! syntax/syncolor.vim
4311
4312Note that this uses the 'runtimepath' option.
4313
4314 *syncolor*
4315If you want to use different colors for syntax highlighting, you can add a Vim
4316script file to set these colors. Put this file in a directory in
4317'runtimepath' which comes after $VIMRUNTIME, so that your settings overrule
4318the default colors. This way these colors will be used after the ":syntax
4319reset" command.
4320
4321For Unix you can use the file ~/.vim/after/syntax/syncolor.vim. Example: >
4322
4323 if &background == "light"
4324 highlight comment ctermfg=darkgreen guifg=darkgreen
4325 else
4326 highlight comment ctermfg=green guifg=green
4327 endif
4328
Bram Moolenaarc0197e22004-09-13 20:26:32 +00004329 *E679*
4330Do make sure this syncolor.vim script does not use a "syntax on", set the
4331'background' option or uses a "colorscheme" command, because it results in an
4332endless loop.
4333
Bram Moolenaar071d4272004-06-13 20:20:40 +00004334Note that when a color scheme is used, there might be some confusion whether
4335your defined colors are to be used or the colors from the scheme. This
4336depends on the color scheme file. See |:colorscheme|.
4337
4338 *syntax_cmd*
4339The "syntax_cmd" variable is set to one of these values when the
4340syntax/syncolor.vim files are loaded:
4341 "on" ":syntax on" command. Highlight colors are overruled but
4342 links are kept
4343 "enable" ":syntax enable" command. Only define colors for groups that
4344 don't have highlighting yet. Use ":syntax default".
4345 "reset" ":syntax reset" command or loading a color scheme. Define all
4346 the colors.
4347 "skip" Don't define colors. Used to skip the default settings when a
4348 syncolor.vim file earlier in 'runtimepath' has already set
4349 them.
4350
4351==============================================================================
435215. Highlighting tags *tag-highlight*
4353
4354If you want to highlight all the tags in your file, you can use the following
4355mappings.
4356
4357 <F11> -- Generate tags.vim file, and highlight tags.
4358 <F12> -- Just highlight tags based on existing tags.vim file.
4359>
4360 :map <F11> :sp tags<CR>:%s/^\([^ :]*:\)\=\([^ ]*\).*/syntax keyword Tag \2/<CR>:wq! tags.vim<CR>/^<CR><F12>
4361 :map <F12> :so tags.vim<CR>
4362
4363WARNING: The longer the tags file, the slower this will be, and the more
4364memory Vim will consume.
4365
4366Only highlighting typedefs, unions and structs can be done too. For this you
4367must use Exuberant ctags (found at http://ctags.sf.net).
4368
4369Put these lines in your Makefile:
4370
4371# Make a highlight file for types. Requires Exuberant ctags and awk
4372types: types.vim
4373types.vim: *.[ch]
4374 ctags -i=gstuS -o- *.[ch] |\
4375 awk 'BEGIN{printf("syntax keyword Type\t")}\
4376 {printf("%s ", $$1)}END{print ""}' > $@
4377
4378And put these lines in your .vimrc: >
4379
4380 " load the types.vim highlighting file, if it exists
4381 autocmd BufRead,BufNewFile *.[ch] let fname = expand('<afile>:p:h') . '/types.vim'
4382 autocmd BufRead,BufNewFile *.[ch] if filereadable(fname)
4383 autocmd BufRead,BufNewFile *.[ch] exe 'so ' . fname
4384 autocmd BufRead,BufNewFile *.[ch] endif
4385
4386==============================================================================
438716. Color xterms *xterm-color* *color-xterm*
4388
4389Most color xterms have only eight colors. If you don't get colors with the
4390default setup, it should work with these lines in your .vimrc: >
4391 :if &term =~ "xterm"
4392 : if has("terminfo")
4393 : set t_Co=8
4394 : set t_Sf=<Esc>[3%p1%dm
4395 : set t_Sb=<Esc>[4%p1%dm
4396 : else
4397 : set t_Co=8
4398 : set t_Sf=<Esc>[3%dm
4399 : set t_Sb=<Esc>[4%dm
4400 : endif
4401 :endif
4402< [<Esc> is a real escape, type CTRL-V <Esc>]
4403
4404You might want to change the first "if" to match the name of your terminal,
4405e.g. "dtterm" instead of "xterm".
4406
4407Note: Do these settings BEFORE doing ":syntax on". Otherwise the colors may
4408be wrong.
4409 *xiterm* *rxvt*
4410The above settings have been mentioned to work for xiterm and rxvt too.
4411But for using 16 colors in an rxvt these should work with terminfo: >
4412 :set t_AB=<Esc>[%?%p1%{8}%<%t25;%p1%{40}%+%e5;%p1%{32}%+%;%dm
4413 :set t_AF=<Esc>[%?%p1%{8}%<%t22;%p1%{30}%+%e1;%p1%{22}%+%;%dm
4414<
4415 *colortest.vim*
4416To test your color setup, a file has been included in the Vim distribution.
Bram Moolenaarf740b292006-02-16 22:11:02 +00004417To use it, execute this command: >
4418 :runtime syntax/colortest.vim
Bram Moolenaar071d4272004-06-13 20:20:40 +00004419
Bram Moolenaar13fcaaf2005-04-15 21:13:42 +00004420Some versions of xterm (and other terminals, like the Linux console) can
Bram Moolenaar071d4272004-06-13 20:20:40 +00004421output lighter foreground colors, even though the number of colors is defined
4422at 8. Therefore Vim sets the "cterm=bold" attribute for light foreground
4423colors, when 't_Co' is 8.
4424
4425 *xfree-xterm*
4426To get 16 colors or more, get the newest xterm version (which should be
Bram Moolenaar13fcaaf2005-04-15 21:13:42 +00004427included with XFree86 3.3 and later). You can also find the latest version
Bram Moolenaar071d4272004-06-13 20:20:40 +00004428at: >
4429 http://invisible-island.net/xterm/xterm.html
4430Here is a good way to configure it. This uses 88 colors and enables the
4431termcap-query feature, which allows Vim to ask the xterm how many colors it
4432supports. >
4433 ./configure --disable-bold-color --enable-88-color --enable-tcap-query
4434If you only get 8 colors, check the xterm compilation settings.
4435(Also see |UTF8-xterm| for using this xterm with UTF-8 character encoding).
4436
4437This xterm should work with these lines in your .vimrc (for 16 colors): >
4438 :if has("terminfo")
4439 : set t_Co=16
4440 : set t_AB=<Esc>[%?%p1%{8}%<%t%p1%{40}%+%e%p1%{92}%+%;%dm
4441 : set t_AF=<Esc>[%?%p1%{8}%<%t%p1%{30}%+%e%p1%{82}%+%;%dm
4442 :else
4443 : set t_Co=16
4444 : set t_Sf=<Esc>[3%dm
4445 : set t_Sb=<Esc>[4%dm
4446 :endif
4447< [<Esc> is a real escape, type CTRL-V <Esc>]
4448
4449Without |+terminfo|, Vim will recognize these settings, and automatically
4450translate cterm colors of 8 and above to "<Esc>[9%dm" and "<Esc>[10%dm".
4451Colors above 16 are also translated automatically.
4452
4453For 256 colors this has been reported to work: >
4454
4455 :set t_AB=<Esc>[48;5;%dm
4456 :set t_AF=<Esc>[38;5;%dm
4457
4458Or just set the TERM environment variable to "xterm-color" or "xterm-16color"
4459and try if that works.
4460
4461You probably want to use these X resources (in your ~/.Xdefaults file):
4462 XTerm*color0: #000000
4463 XTerm*color1: #c00000
4464 XTerm*color2: #008000
4465 XTerm*color3: #808000
4466 XTerm*color4: #0000c0
4467 XTerm*color5: #c000c0
4468 XTerm*color6: #008080
4469 XTerm*color7: #c0c0c0
4470 XTerm*color8: #808080
4471 XTerm*color9: #ff6060
4472 XTerm*color10: #00ff00
4473 XTerm*color11: #ffff00
4474 XTerm*color12: #8080ff
4475 XTerm*color13: #ff40ff
4476 XTerm*color14: #00ffff
4477 XTerm*color15: #ffffff
4478 Xterm*cursorColor: Black
4479
4480[Note: The cursorColor is required to work around a bug, which changes the
4481cursor color to the color of the last drawn text. This has been fixed by a
4482newer version of xterm, but not everybody is it using yet.]
4483
4484To get these right away, reload the .Xdefaults file to the X Option database
4485Manager (you only need to do this when you just changed the .Xdefaults file): >
4486 xrdb -merge ~/.Xdefaults
4487<
4488 *xterm-blink* *xterm-blinking-cursor*
4489To make the cursor blink in an xterm, see tools/blink.c. Or use Thomas
4490Dickey's xterm above patchlevel 107 (see above for where to get it), with
4491these resources:
4492 XTerm*cursorBlink: on
4493 XTerm*cursorOnTime: 400
4494 XTerm*cursorOffTime: 250
4495 XTerm*cursorColor: White
4496
4497 *hpterm-color*
4498These settings work (more or less) for a hpterm, which only supports 8
4499foreground colors: >
4500 :if has("terminfo")
4501 : set t_Co=8
4502 : set t_Sf=<Esc>[&v%p1%dS
4503 : set t_Sb=<Esc>[&v7S
4504 :else
4505 : set t_Co=8
4506 : set t_Sf=<Esc>[&v%dS
4507 : set t_Sb=<Esc>[&v7S
4508 :endif
4509< [<Esc> is a real escape, type CTRL-V <Esc>]
4510
4511 *Eterm* *enlightened-terminal*
4512These settings have been reported to work for the Enlightened terminal
4513emulator, or Eterm. They might work for all xterm-like terminals that use the
4514bold attribute to get bright colors. Add an ":if" like above when needed. >
4515 :set t_Co=16
4516 :set t_AF=^[[%?%p1%{8}%<%t3%p1%d%e%p1%{22}%+%d;1%;m
4517 :set t_AB=^[[%?%p1%{8}%<%t4%p1%d%e%p1%{32}%+%d;1%;m
4518<
4519 *TTpro-telnet*
4520These settings should work for TTpro telnet. Tera Term Pro is a freeware /
4521open-source program for MS-Windows. >
4522 set t_Co=16
4523 set t_AB=^[[%?%p1%{8}%<%t%p1%{40}%+%e%p1%{32}%+5;%;%dm
4524 set t_AF=^[[%?%p1%{8}%<%t%p1%{30}%+%e%p1%{22}%+1;%;%dm
4525Also make sure TTpro's Setup / Window / Full Color is enabled, and make sure
4526that Setup / Font / Enable Bold is NOT enabled.
4527(info provided by John Love-Jensen <eljay@Adobe.COM>)
4528
4529 vim:tw=78:sw=4:ts=8:ft=help:norl: