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*syntax.txt* For Vim version 5.0f. Last modification: 1997 Apr 20
VIM REFERENCE MANUAL by Bram Moolenaar
Syntax highlighting *syntax*
Syntax highlighting enables the possibility to show parts of the text in
another font or color. Those parts can be specific keywords or text
matching a pattern. Vim doesn't parse the whole file (to keep it fast), so
the highlighting has its limitations. Lexical highlighting might be a
better name, but everybody calls it syntax highlighting, so we'll stick with
that.
Vim supports syntax highlighting on all terminals. But since most ordinary
terminals have very limited highlighting possibilities, it works best in the
GUI version, gvim.
1. Quick start |syn-qstart|
2. Syntax files |syn-files|
3. Defining a syntax |syn-define|
4. :syntax arguments |syn-arguments|
5. Synchronizing |:syn-sync|
6. Listing syntax items |:syntax|
7. Highlight command |:highlight|
8. Linking groups |:syn-link|
9. Cleaning up |:syn-clear|
==============================================================================
1. Quick start *syn-qstart*
For a few common languages syntax files have been included. To make them work
include this line in your .vimrc or .gvimrc:
source $VIM/syntax/syntax.vim
This will automatically enable syntax highlighting, depending on the filename
extension. If the VIM environment variable is not set, Vim will try to find
the path in another way (see |$VIM|). Normally this will work just fine. If
it doesn't, try setting the VIM environment variable to the directory where
the Vim stuff is located. For example, if your syntax files are in the
"/usr/vim/5.0/syntax" directory, set $VIM to "/usr/vim/5.0".
==============================================================================
2. Syntax files *syn-files*
The syntax and highlighting commands for one language are normally stored in
a syntax file. The name convention is: "{name}.vim". Where {name} is the
name of the language, or an abbreviation (to fit the name in 8.3 characters,
which is always done, in case the file will be used on a DOS filesystem).
Examples:
c.vim perl.vim java.vim html.vim
cpp.vim sh.vim csh.vim
The syntax file can contain any Ex commands, just like a vimrc file. But
the idea is that only commands for a specific language are included. When a
language is a superset of another language, it may include the other one,
for example, the cpp.vim file could include the c.vim file:
:so $VIM/syntax/c.vim
The .vim files are normally loaded with an autocommand. For example:
:au BufNewFile,BufReadPost *.c,*.h source $VIM/syntax/c.vim
:au BufNewFile,BufReadPost *.cpp source $VIM/syntax/cpp.vim
NAMING CONVENTIONS
*group-name*
To be able to allow each user to pick his favorite set of colors, there need
to be preferred names for highlight groups that are common for many languages.
These are the ones that are suggested to be used:
Comment Any comment
String A string constant: "this is a string".
Character A character constant: 'c', '\n'.
Number A number constant: 234, 0xff
Identifier names of variables.
Conditional if, then, else, endif, switch, etc.
Repeat for, do, while, etc.
Label case, default, etc.
Statement any other statement: goto, break, etc.
Operator "sizeof", "+", "*", etc.
Keyword Any other keyword
Function Function names (also: methods for classes)
Include Preprocessor #include
Define Preprocessor #define
PreCondit Preprocessor #if, #else, #endif, etc.
Type int, long, char, etc.
StorageClass static, register, volatile, etc.
Structure struct, union, enum, etc.
Typedef A typedef
Note that highlight group names are not case sensitive. "String" and "string"
can be used for the same group.
The following names are reserved and cannot be used as a group name:
NONE ALLBUT contains contained
==============================================================================
3. Defining a syntax *syn-define*
Vim understands three types of syntax items:
1. A keyword. It can only contain keyword characters, according to the
'iskeyword' option. It cannot contain other syntax items. It will only
be recognized when it is a complete match (there are no keyword
characters before or after the match). "if" would match in "if(a=b)",
but not in "ifdef x".
2. A match. This is a match with a single regexp pattern. It must be within
one line.
3. A region. This starts at a match of the start regexp pattern and
ends with a match with the end regexp pattern. A skip regexp pattern can
be used to avoid matching the end pattern.
Several syntax ITEMs can be put into one syntax GROUP. For a syntax group
you can give highlighting attributes. For example, you could have an item
to define a /* .. */ comment and another one that defines a // comment, and
put them both in the "Comment" group. You can then specify that a "Comment"
will be in bold font and have a blue color. You are free to make one
highlight group for one syntax item, or put all items into one group. This
depends on how you want to specify your highlighting attributes. Putting
each item in its own group results in having to specify the highlighting
for a lot of groups.
Note that a syntax group and a highlight group are similar. For a highlight
group you will have given highlight attributes. These attributes will be used
for the syntax group with the same name. However, a syntax group can also be
linked to another highlight group. In that case, there is no highlight group
for that syntax group.
In case more than one items match at the same position, the one that was
defined first wins. But a keyword always goes before a match or region. And
a keyword with matching case always goes before a keyword with ignoring case.
DEFINING CASE *:syn-case*
:syntax case [match|ignore]
This defines if the following ":syntax" commands will work with
matching case, when using "match", or with ignoring case, when using
"ignore". Note that any items before this are not affected, and all
items until the next ":syntax case" command are affected.
DEFINING KEYWORDS *:syn-keyword*
:syntax keyword {group-name} {options} {keyword} ..
This defines a number of keywords.
{group-name} Is a syntax group name such as "Comment".
{options} See |syn-arguments| below.
{keyword} .. Is a list of keywords which are part of this group.
Example:
:syntax keyword Type int long char
A keyword always has higher priority than a match or region, if more
than one item matches. Keywords do not nest and a keyword can't
contain anything else.
Note that when you have a keyword that is the same as an option (even
one that isn't allowed here), you can not use it as the first item in
the list of keywords. Put another keyword before it. Example:
:syntax keyword vimSpecial dummy grouphere
DEFINING MATCHES *:syn-match*
:syntax match {group-name} {options} {pattern} [contains {group-name} ..]
This defines one match.
{group-name} A syntax group name such as "Comment".
{options} See |syn-arguments| below.
{pattern} The search pattern that defines the match. See
|syn-pattern| below.
[contains ..] The syntax groups that the match may contain. See
|:syn-contains| below.
Example (match a character constant):
:syntax match Character /'.'/s+1e-1
DEFINING REGIONS *:syn-region* *:syn-start* *:syn-skip* *:syn-end*
:syntax region {group-name} {options}
start={start_pattern} ..
[skip={skip_pattern}]
end={end_pattern} ..
[contains {group-name} ..]
This defines one region. It may span several lines.
{group-name} A syntax group name such as "Comment".
{options} See |syn-arguments| below.
start={start_pattern} The search pattern that defines the start of
the region. See |syn-pattern| below.
skip={skip_pattern} The search pattern that defines text inside
the region where not to look for the end
pattern. See |syn-pattern| below.
end={end_pattern} The search pattern that defines the end of
the region. See |syn-pattern| below.
[contains {group-name} ..]
The syntax groups that the match may contain.
See |:syn-contains| below.
Example:
:syntax region String start=+"+ skip=+\\"+ end=+"+
The start/skip/end patterns can be given in any order. There can be
zero or one skip pattern. There must be one or more start and end
patterns. This means that you can omit the skip pattern, but you
must give at least one start and end pattern. It is allowed to have
white space before and after the equal sign (although it mostly looks
better without white space).
When more than one start pattern is given, a match with one of these
is sufficient. This means there is an OR relation between the start
patterns. The same is true for the end patterns.
==============================================================================
4. :syntax arguments *syn-arguments*
The :syntax commands that define syntax items take a number of arguments.
The common ones are explained here.
Not all commands accept all arguments. This table shows which arguments
can be used for each command:
contained transparent contains oneline
:syntax keyword yes - - -
:syntax match yes yes yes -
:syntax region yes yes yes yes
*:syn-contained*
When the "contained" argument is given, this item will not be recognized at
the top level, but only when it is mentioned in the "contains" field of
another match. Example:
:syntax keyword Todo contained TODO
:syntax match Comment "//.*" contains Todo
*:syn-transparent*
If the "transparent" argument is given, this item will not be highlighted
itself, but will take the highlighting of the item it is contained in. This
is useful for syntax items that don't need any highlighting but are used
only to skip over a part of the text. The same groups as the item it is
contained in are used, unless a "contains" argument is given too.
*:syn-contains*
The "contains" argument is followed by a list of syntax group names. These
groups will be accepted inside the item. This allows for recursive nesting
of matches and regions. If there is no "contains" argument, no groups will
be contained in this item. The group names do not need to be defined before
they can be used here. If the first item in the contains list is "ALLBUT",
then all groups will be accepted inside the item, except the ones that are
listed, and the "contained" items. Example:
:syntax region Block start="{" end="}" ... contains ALLBUT Function
The {group-name} in the "contains" list can be a pattern. All group names
that match the pattern will be included (or excluded, if "ALLBUT" is used).
The pattern cannot contain white space. Example:
... contains Comment.* Keyw[0-3]
*:syn-oneline*
The "oneline" argument indicates that the region does not cross a line
boundary (except when a contained item does).
*syn-pattern*
In the commands above, a pattern must be surrounded by two identical
characters. This is like it works for the ":s" command. The most common to
use is the double quote. But if the pattern contains a double quote, you can
use another character that is not used in the pattern. Examples:
:syntax region Comment start="/\*" end="\*/"
:syntax region String start=+"+ end=+"+ skip=+\\"+
See |pattern| for the explanation of what a pattern is. Syntax patterns are
always interpreted like the 'magic' options is set, no matter what the actual
value of 'magic' is. This was done to make syntax files portable.
Try to avoid patterns that can match an empty string, such as "[a-z]*".
This slows down the highlighting a lot, because it matches everywhere.
The pattern can be followed by a character offset. This can be used to
change the highlighted part, and to change the text area included in the
match or region (which only matters when trying to match other items). Both
are relative to the matched pattern. The character offset for a skip
pattern can be used to tell where to continue looking for an end pattern.
offset meaning for match/region-start/region-end/skip
S+{N} matched text starts/starts/ends/ends N characters to the right of
the START of the matched pattern.
S-{N} matched text starts/starts/ends/ends N characters to the left of
the START of the matched pattern.
E+{N} matched text ends/starts/ends/ends N characters to the right of
the END of the matched pattern.
E-{N} matched text ends/starts/ends/ends N characters to the left of
the END of the matched pattern.
s+{N} highlighting starts/starts/ends/@ N characters to the right of
the START of the matched text.
s-{N} highlighting */starts/ends/@ N characters to the left of
the START of the matched pattern.
e+{N} highlighting */starts/ends/@ N characters to the right of
the END of the matched pattern.
e-{N} highlighting ends/starts/ends/@ N characters to the left of
the END of the matched text.
* means that it's not possible for a match, because it would mean that the
highlighted area would go outside of the matched text.
@ means that it's not used for a skip pattern, because only the matched
text matters.
Notes:
- Several offsets may be concatenated.
- There must be no white space between the pattern and the character
offset(s).
- The highlighted area will never be outside of the matched text.
Example (match a character constant but don't highlight the quotes):
:syntax match Character /'.'/s+1e-1
Example (match a comment but don't highlight the /* and */):
:syntax region Comment start="/\*"e+1 end="\*/"s-1
==============================================================================
5. Synchronizing *:syn-sync*
Vim wants to be able to start redrawing in any position in the document. To
make this possible it needs to know the syntax item at the position where
redrawing starts.
:syntax sync [ccomment [group-name] | lines {N} | ...]
There are three ways to synchronize:
1. Based on C-style comments. Vim understands how C-comments work and can
figure out if the current line starts inside or outside a comment.
2. Jumping back a certain number of lines and start parsing there.
3. Searching backwards in the text for a pattern to sync on.
First syncing method:
For the first method, only the "ccomment" argument needs to be given.
Example:
:syntax sync ccomment
When Vim finds that the line where displaying starts is inside a C-style
comment, the first region syntax item with the group-name "Comment" will be
used. This requires that there is a region with the group-name "Comment"!
An alternate group name can be specified, for example:
:syntax sync ccomment javaComment
If the "lines {N}" argument is given too, the number of lines that are
searched for a comment is restricted to N. This is useful if you have very
few comments and a slow machine. Example:
:syntax sync ccomment lines 100
Note: Syncing on a C comment doesn't work properly when strings are used
that cross al line and contain a "*/". Since letting strings cross a line
is a bad programming habit (many compilers give a warning message), and the
chance of a "*/" appearing inside a comment is very small, this restriction
is hardly ever noticed.
Second syncing method:
For the second method, only the "lines {N}" argument needs to be given. Vim
will subtract {N} from the line number and start parsing there. This means
{N} extra lines need to be parsed, which makes this method a bit slower.
Example:
:syntax sync lines 50
Third syncing method:
The idea is to synchronize on the end of a few specific regions, called a
sync pattern. Only regions can cross lines, so when we find the end of some
region, we might be able to know in which syntax item we are. The search
starts in the line just above the one where redrawing starts. From there
the search continues backwards in the file.
A line continuation pattern can be given here. It is used to decide which
group of lines need to be searched like they were one line. This means that
the search for a match with the specified items starts in the first of the
consecutive that contain the continuation pattern.
When a match with a sync pattern is found, the rest of the line (or group of
continuated lines) is searched for another match. The last match is used.
This is used when a line can contain both the start end the end of a region
(e.g., in a C-comment like /* this */, the last "*/" is used).
There are two ways how a match with a sync pattern can be used:
1. Parsing for highlighting starts where redrawing starts (and where the
search for the sync pattern started). The syntax group that is expected
to be valid there must be specified. This works well when the regions
that cross lines cannot contain other regions.
2. Parsing for highlighting continues just after the match. The syntax group
that is expected to be present just after the match must be specified.
This can be used when the previous method doesn't work well. It's much
slower, because more text needs to be parsed.
Both types of sync patterns can be used at the same time.
Besides the sync patterns, other matches and regions can be specified, to
avoid finding unwanted matches.
[The reason that the sync patterns are given separately, is that mostly the
search for the sync point can be much simpler than figuring out the
highlighting. The reduced number of patterns means it will go (much)
faster.]
:syntax sync match {group-name} grouphere {sync-group-name} ..
Define a match that is used for syncing. {sync-group-name} is the
name of a syntax group that follows just after the match. Parsing
of the text for highlighting starts just after the match. A region
must exist for this sync-group-name. The first one defined will be
used. "NONE" can be used for when there is no syntax group after the
match.
:syntax sync match {group-name} groupthere {sync-group-name} ..
Like "grouphere", but {sync-group-name} is the name of a syntax
group that is to be used at the start of the line where searching
for the sync point started. The text between the match and the
start of the sync pattern searching is assumed not to change the
syntax highlighting.
:syntax sync match ..
:syntax sync region ..
Define a region or match that is skipped while searching for a sync
point.
:syntax sync linecont {pattern}
When {pattern} matches in a line, it is considered to continue in
the next line. This means that the search for a sync point will
consider the lines to be concatenated.
If the "lines {N}" argument is given too, the number of lines that are
searched for a match is restricted to N. This is useful if you have very
few comments and a slow machine. Example:
:syntax sync lines 100
==============================================================================
6. Listing syntax items *:syntax*
This commands lists all the syntax items:
:syntax [list]
To show the syntax items for one syntax group:
:syntax list {group-name}
See above for other arguments for the ":syntax" command.
==============================================================================
7. Highlight command *:highlight*
There are two types of highlight groups:
- The ones used for specific languages. For these the name starts with the
name of the language. Many of these don't have any attributes, but are
linked to a group of the second type.
- The ones used for all languages. These are also used for the 'highlight'
option.
:highlight List all the current highlight groups that have
attributes set.
:highlight {group-name}
List one highlight group.
:highlight {group-name} NONE
Disable the highlighting for one highlight group.
:highlight {group-name} {key}={arg} ..
Add a highlight group, or change the highlighting for
an existing group. See below for the arguments
|highlight-args|.
Normally a highlight group is added once, in the *.vim file. This sets
the default values for the highlighting. After that, you can use additional
highlight commands to change the arguments that you want to set to
non-default values. The value "NONE" can be used to switch the value off or
go back to the default value.
*highlight-args*
There are three types of terminals for highlighting:
- a normal terminal (vt100, xterm)
- a color terminal (MS-DOS console, color-xterm, have the "Co" termcap entry)
- the GUI
For each type the highlighting can be given. This makes it possible to use
the same syntax file on all terminals, and use the optimal highlighting.
1. highlight arguments for normal terminals
term={attr-list} *attr-list*
attr-list is a comma separated list (without spaces) of the
following items (in any order):
bold
underline
reverse
inverse same as reverse
italic
standout
NONE no attributes used (used to reset it)
Note that "bold" can be used here and by using a bold font. They
have the same effect.
start={term-list}
stop={term-list} *term-list*
These lists of terminal codes can be used to get
non-standard attributes on a terminal.
The escape sequence specified with the "start" argument
is written before the characters in the highlighted
area. It can be anything that you want to send to the
terminal to highlight this area. The escape sequence
specified with the "stop" argument is written after the
highlighted area. This should undo the "start" argument.
Otherwise the screen will look messed up.
The {term-list} can have two forms:
1. A string with escape sequences.
This is any string of characters, except that it can't start with
"t_" and blanks are not allowed. The <> notation is recognized
here, so you can use things like "<Esc>" and "<Space>". Example:
start=<Esc>[27h;<Esc>[<Space>r;
2. A list of terminal codes.
Each terminal code has the form "t_xx", where "xx" is the name of
the termcap entry. The codes have to be separated with commas.
White space is not allowed. Example:
start=t_C1,t_BL
The terminal codes must exist for this to work.
2. highlight arguments for color terminals
cterm={attr-list}
See above for the description of {attr-list} |attr-list|.
The "cterm" argument is likely to be different from "term", when
colors are used. For example, in a normal terminal comments could
be underlined, in a color terminal they can be made Blue.
ctermfg={color-nr}
ctermbg={color-nr}
The {color-nr} argument is a color number. Its range is zero to
(not including) the number given by the termcap entry "Co".
The actual color with this number depends on the type of terminal
and its settings. Examples:
nr color-xterm MSDOS console
0 Black Black
1 Red Blue
2 Green Green
3 Yellow Cyan
4 Blue Red
5 Magenta Magenta
6 Cyan Brown
7 White LightGray, LightGrey, Gray, Grey
8 - DarkGray, DarkGrey
9 - LightBlue
10 - LightGreen
11 - LighCyan
12 - LightRed
13 - LightMagenta
14 - Yellow
15 - White
Instead of giving a number, the MS-DOS color names can be used too.
For some color terminals these may result in the wrong colors. The
case of the color names is ignored.
The colors for a color-xterm can be changed from the .Xdefaults
file. Unfortunately this means that it's not possible to get the
same colors for each user.
3. highlight arguments for GUI
gui={attr-list}
These give the attributes to use in the GUI mode.
See |attr-list| for a description.
Note that "bold" can be used here and by using a bold font. They
have the same effect.
font={font-name}
font-name is the name of a font, as it is used on the system Vim
runs on. For X11 this is a complicated name, for example:
font=-misc-fixed-bold-r-normal--14-130-75-75-c-70-iso8859-1
The font-name "NONE" can be used to revert to the default font.
All fonts used should be of the same character size as the default
font!
guifg={color-name}
guibg={color-name}
These give the foreground (guifg) and background (guibg) color to
use in the GUI. There is one special name: "NONE". It can be used
to reset the color.
Suggested color names (these are available on most systems) TODO:
Blue LightBlue DarkBlue
Red BrightRed LightRed DarkRed
Green LightGreen DarkGreen
Cyan BrightCyan
Magenta
Yellow
Black Gray
White
You can also specify a color by it's Red, Green and Blue values.
The format is "#rrggbb", where
"rr" is the Red value
"bb" is the Blue value
"gg" is the Green value
All values are hexadecimal, range from "00" to "ff". Examples:
:highlight Comment guifg=#11f0c3 guibg=#ff00ff
==============================================================================
8. Linking groups *:syn-link*
When you want to use the same highlighting for several syntax groups, you
can do this more easily by linking the groups into one common highlight
group, and give the color attributes only for that group.
:syntax link {from-group} {to-group}
Notes:
- If the {from-group} and/or {to-group} doesn't exist, it is created. You
don't get an error message for a non-existing group.
- As soon as you use a ":highlight" command for a linked group, the link is
removed.
==============================================================================
9. Cleaning up *:syn-clear*
If you want to clear the current syntax stuff, you can use this commands:
:syntax clear
This command should be used when you want to switch off syntax highlighting,
or when you want to switch to using another syntax. It's a good idea to
include this command at the beginning of a syntax file.
vim:tw=78:ts=8:sw=4
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