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This is a tutorial showing how to create your own syntax files in Vim. This provides syntax highlighting to show the different elements of files that you use. In this tutorial, all file names matching a particular extension will use the highlighting rules defined with the syntax commands shown below.
==Introduction==
 
Since there isn't a lot of material on creating your own syntax files in Vim, I've decided to write a tutorial on the process. Currently, this tutorial only shows how to make Vim interpret the syntax of files by their file extension. Another tutorial may extend this to show how to interpret the syntax of files by their contents.
 
   
 
==Example: Celestia star catalogs==
 
==Example: Celestia star catalogs==
For this tutorial I am creating a syntax file for Celestia star catalogs. [http://www.shatters.net/celestia/ Celestia] is a great program for anyone who likes astronomy and space, but I digress. All we need to know for this tutorial is that a star catalog lists a star name along with its positional information, distance and attributes (color, radius, mass, brightness). An example entry in a star catalog file (.stc) can be:
+
This tutorial creates a syntax file for Celestia star catalogs. [http://www.shatters.net/celestia/ Celestia] is a great program for anyone who likes astronomy and space. All we need to know for this tutorial is that a star catalog lists a star name with its positional information, distance and attributes (color, radius, mass, brightness). Here is an example entry in a star catalog file (<code>.stc</code>):
 
 
<pre>
 
<pre>
 
600000 "My Star"
 
600000 "My Star"
Line 29: Line 27:
 
</pre>
 
</pre>
   
As you can see it consists of a number, a string, and a block (<tt>'''{...}'''</tt>), with some keywords within that block ("RA", "Dec", etc). Comments are marked out by a "#" like in shell scripts or conf files. In fact, the syntax looks a lot like a conf file. There can be multiple entries like this with a number (the HIP number), the string, and the block containing the attributes. Celestia gets more complicated than this because you can have multiple stars going around a barycenter, etc, but we are not going to get fancy. We'll cover only stars.
+
The entry consists of a number, a string, and a <code>{...}</code> block, with some keywords within that block ("RA", "Dec", etc). Comments are prefixed with "#" like in shell scripts or conf files. There can be multiple entries like this with a number (the HIP number), the string, and the block containing the attributes. Celestia gets more complicated than this because you can have multiple stars going around a barycenter, but we will only cover stars.
   
 
==Syntax files==
 
==Syntax files==
 
===Get your directory straight===
 
Syntax files are editor scripts, just like everything else, and are generally located in your personal <tt>$HOME/.vim/syntax</tt> directory. If that directory does not exist you can create it. There should also be a system-wide syntax file directory. It is preferable to use the personal syntax directory over the system-wide one since it is less likely to be overwritten by a newer Vim installation. A good reason to use the system-wide directory is if more than one user requires use of a syntax file. You can see these in Vim with the command:
 
 
<pre>
 
:set rtp?
 
</pre>
 
 
The system-wide and user syntax directories are OS and system dependent.
 
 
====Unix====
 
<pre>
 
/usr/share/vim/vimxx/syntax
 
</pre>
 
Where xx is the vim version. You can verify its location using the previous editor command, <tt>set :rtp?</tt>.
 
 
====Windows====
 
<pre>
 
%PROGRAMFILES%\vim\vim71\syntax
 
%PROGRAMFILES%\vim\vim71\cream\syntax
 
</pre>
 
 
Under Windows you can create a <tt>$HOME</tt> environment variable manually. From [[Change the color scheme]]:
 
 
::On Windows, the $HOME environment variable can be set by going to your desktop, right click on "My Computer", click the "Advanced" tab, select "Environment Variables". If HOME is not in the list of variables, create a new variable named HOME and point it to the location of your vimrc.
 
 
====Mac OS====
 
For the terminal Vim it's the same as *nix:
 
<pre>/usr/share/vim/vimxx/syntax</pre>
 
If you're using the fantastic MacVim it's:
 
<pre>/Applications/MacVim.app/Contents/Resources/vim/runtime/syntax</pre>
 
(To get there, right click MacVim in the Applications directory and "Show Package Contents.") Keep in mind that they have separate system-wide directories, but will share the current personal directory at ~/.vim/
 
 
 
===Build a syntax file===
 
===Build a syntax file===
First, create a new file in Vim, and add the following contents:
+
First, create a new file named <code>cel.vim</code> with the following contents:
 
 
<pre>
 
<pre>
 
" Vim syntax file
 
" Vim syntax file
Line 79: Line 43:
 
</pre>
 
</pre>
   
Vim comments start with a quote. So I am following the convention of the built-in syntax files, and making a little comment flower box. The test <tt>if exists("b:current_syntax") ...</tt> checks whether an earlier file has defined a syntax already. If so, the script exits with <tt>finish</tt>.
+
Vim comments start with a quote. Following the convention of the built-in syntax files, we start with a comment flower box. The test <code>if&nbsp;exists("b:current_syntax") ...</code> checks whether an earlier file has defined a syntax already. If so, the script exits with <code>finish</code>.
   
 
===Keyword, match and region elements===
 
===Keyword, match and region elements===
 
There are three major syntax elements, and commands to describe those elements. In order to syntax highlight, we must be able to describe what to highlight. Here is an example of what they look like:
 
There are three major syntax elements, and commands to describe those elements. In order to syntax highlight, we must be able to describe what to highlight. Here is an example of what they look like:
 
 
<pre>
 
<pre>
 
" Keywords
 
" Keywords
Line 96: Line 59:
   
 
====Keywords====
 
====Keywords====
Keywords are simple. Take for example the programming language BASIC. In BASIC there are several keywords like PRINT, OPEN and IF. Let's say you would like the editor to recognize them. You can define them like so:
+
Keywords are simple. Take for example the programming language BASIC. In BASIC there are several keywords like PRINT, OPEN and IF. To have Vim recognize them, you can use a definition:
 
 
<pre>
 
<pre>
 
syn keyword basicLanguageKeywords PRINT OPEN IF
 
syn keyword basicLanguageKeywords PRINT OPEN IF
 
</pre>
 
</pre>
   
For now we are not going to worry about <tt>nextgroup=</tt>.
+
For now we are not going to worry about <code>nextgroup=</code>.
 
The editor will now recognize the keywords PRINT, OPEN and IF as syntax elements of type <tt>basicLanguageKeywords</tt>. You can add more on the same line, or add another line with the same type (<tt>basicLanguageKeywords</tt>). In other words if I wanted to add the keywords DO, WHILE and WEND to my list, I could add to the previous line like this:
 
   
 
Vim will now recognize the keywords PRINT, OPEN and IF as syntax elements of type <code>basicLanguageKeywords</code>. You can add more on the same line, or add another line with the same type (<code>basicLanguageKeywords</code>). For example, to add the keywords DO, WHILE and WEND, you could add to the previous line like this:
 
<pre>
 
<pre>
 
syn keyword basicLanguageKeywords PRINT OPEN IF DO WHILE WEND
 
syn keyword basicLanguageKeywords PRINT OPEN IF DO WHILE WEND
 
</pre>
 
</pre>
   
Or, I could add another line, like this:
+
or, add another line, like this:
 
 
<pre>
 
<pre>
 
syn keyword basicLanguageKeywords PRINT OPEN IF
 
syn keyword basicLanguageKeywords PRINT OPEN IF
Line 117: Line 77:
 
</pre>
 
</pre>
   
Let's use a more relevant example. Take our star catalog entry from above
+
We will apply this procedure to our star catalog entry from above:
 
 
<pre>600000 "My Star"
 
<pre>600000 "My Star"
 
{
 
{
Line 130: Line 89:
 
</pre>
 
</pre>
   
We can group the following keywords as part of a syntax element called <tt>celBlockCmd</tt> by adding the following to our syntax file.
+
We can group the following keywords as part of a syntax element called <code>celBlockCmd</code> by adding the following to our syntax file.
 
 
<pre>
 
<pre>
 
syn keyword celBlockCmd RA Dec SpectralType Mass Distance AbsMag
 
syn keyword celBlockCmd RA Dec SpectralType Mass Distance AbsMag
 
</pre>
 
</pre>
   
The editor will now recognize them. Maybe that's enough for your purposes, but I wanted to make things a little more interesting with matches following the keywords, like those numbers and string values. How do we get those to be recognized?
+
Vim will now recognize these keywords which may be sufficient for your purpose. However, what if we want to match the text following the keywords, like those numbers and string values?
   
 
====Matches (and addendum to keywords)====
 
====Matches (and addendum to keywords)====
All this keyword stuff logically leads to matches. Take the above example once again. After the keywords ("RA", "Dec", "AbsMag" etc) there are numbers. Let's say we want Vim to know that following a certain keyword there is going to be some set of characters to follow (defined as a regular expression maybe).
+
All this keyword stuff logically leads to matches. Take the above example once again. After the keywords ("RA", "Dec", "AbsMag" etc) there are numbers. We want Vim to know that following a certain keyword there is going to be some set of characters, perhaps defined as a regular expression.
 
This is where matches come in; along with an additional caveat to using keywords, the <tt>nextgroup</tt> and <tt>skipwhite</tt> arguments as seen above.
 
   
 
This is where matches come in; along with an additional caveat to using keywords, the <code>nextgroup</code> and <code>skipwhite</code> arguments as seen above.
 
<pre>
 
<pre>
 
syn match celNumber '\d\+'
 
syn match celNumber '\d\+'
Line 148: Line 105:
 
</pre>
 
</pre>
   
Now as you can see the match was given a regular expression <tt>\d\+</tt> meaning to match one or more (<tt>\+</tt>) digits 0-9 (<tt>\d</tt>). The keyword syntax element <tt>celBlockCmd</tt> has been modified slightly because following the <tt>SpectralType</tt> keyword is not a number but a string. Hence it has been excluded from the list of keywords for now. Later in this article, we will address that problem by creating another regular expression to match strings and apply it to that keyword.
+
Now as you can see the match was given a regular expression <code>\d\+</code> meaning to match one or more (<code>\+</code>) digits 0-9 (<code>\d</code>). The keyword syntax element <code>celBlockCmd</code> has been modified slightly because following the <code>SpectralType</code> keyword is not a number but a string. Hence it has been excluded from the list of keywords for now. Later we will address that problem by creating another regular expression to match strings and apply it to that keyword.
   
Notice the <tt>nextgroup</tt> argument. We are telling the editor to expect a <tt>celNumber</tt> after the keyword. So that's the first pattern the editor will attempt to match after finding one of those keywords.
+
Notice the <code>nextgroup</code> argument. We are telling the editor to expect a <code>celNumber</code> after the keyword. So that is the first pattern the editor will attempt to match after finding one of those keywords.
   
The <tt>skipwhite</tt> argument simply tells the editor to expect some whitespace (tabs, spaces etc) between the keyword and the number.
+
The <code>skipwhite</code> argument simply tells the editor to expect some whitespace (spaces or tabs) between the keyword and the number.
 
You may have noticed a slight problem with my implementation. It will only match numbers like 19938, 93, and 0. It won't match decimals 3.91881 or negative numbers (-9).
 
 
How do we fix that? With more interesting regular expressions of course! This was taken from one of the existing Vim syntax files and modified slightly to work for our needs.
 
   
  +
One problem is that the above pattern (<code>\d\+</code>) will only match numbers like 1234, 93, and 0. It will not match numbers like 3.1416 or -1. To fix that, we need a more advanced regular expression borrowed from one of the existing Vim syntax files and slightly modified for our needs.
 
<pre>
 
<pre>
" Regular int like number with - + or nothing in front
+
" Integer with - + or nothing in front
 
syn match celNumber '\d\+'
 
syn match celNumber '\d\+'
 
syn match celNumber '[-+]\d\+'
 
syn match celNumber '[-+]\d\+'
Line 176: Line 130:
 
</pre>
 
</pre>
   
Notice how we can keep creating more lines of <tt>syn match celNumber 'a pattern'</tt> to match all those patterns as one syntax element type (in this case <tt>celNumber</tt>.)
+
We can keep creating more lines like <code>syn match celNumber ''pattern''</code> to match all those patterns as one syntax element type (in this case <code>celNumber</code>).
   
 
====Regions====
 
====Regions====
But we have another challenge that awaits us. Let's look at the star catalog entry again.
+
Looking at the star catalog entry again shows another challenge:
 
 
<pre>
 
<pre>
 
600000 "My Star"
 
600000 "My Star"
Line 193: Line 146:
 
</pre>
 
</pre>
   
The first number is outside of the brackets, and that's not really a number, that's an [http://www.rssd.esa.int/index.php?project=HIPPARCOS HIP catalog entry] (more like a star's ID number rather than a value with physical meaning like mass or distance). The real numbers are the arguments to the keywords (like "RA" and "Dec"). It would be nice if we could have the editor match those differently than regular numbers. But, since <tt>celNumber</tt>s and HIPs consist of the digits 0-9 they conflict with one another. How can we fix that discrepancy?
+
The first number is outside the brackets, and it's not really a number, it's an [http://www.rssd.esa.int/index.php?project=HIPPARCOS HIP catalog entry] (more like a star's ID number rather than a value with physical meaning like mass or distance). The real numbers are the arguments to the keywords (like "RA" and "Dec"). It would be nice if we could have the editor match those differently than regular numbers. But, since <code>celNumber</code>s and HIPs consist of the digits 0-9 they conflict with one another. How can we fix that discrepancy?
   
 
Note that numbers with values exist only within brackets. Outside of the brackets it is an ID number rather than a value. We have to add another argument to the keyword and match definition blocks, and introduce another type of syntax element: a region.
 
Note that numbers with values exist only within brackets. Outside of the brackets it is an ID number rather than a value. We have to add another argument to the keyword and match definition blocks, and introduce another type of syntax element: a region.
   
First, we have to let the editor know that the aforementioned keywords only exist within brackets. Second, we specify that <tt>celNumber</tt> syntax elements only exist within brackets. This is the concept of a region.
+
First, we let the editor know that the keywords only exist within brackets. Second, we specify that <code>celNumber</code> syntax elements only exist within brackets. This is the concept of a region.
 
 
<pre>
 
<pre>
 
syn region celDescBlock start="{" end="}" fold transparent
 
syn region celDescBlock start="{" end="}" fold transparent
 
</pre>
 
</pre>
   
There we go, and we threw in some arguments for kicks. The <tt>fold</tt> argument means that Vim can increase the fold count inside brackets so you can press Ctrl+<F9> to expand and contract the code. The <tt>transparent</tt> is the important keyword here. It tells the editor to continue to apply matches and keywords to what's inside the region. Otherwise the region would not be colorized properly.
+
The <code>fold</code> argument means that Vim can increase the fold count inside brackets so you can press Ctrl-F9 to expand and contract the code. The <code>transparent</code> is the important keyword here. It tells the editor to continue to apply matches and keywords to what is inside the region. Otherwise the region would not be colorized properly.
   
 
We must add another additional argument to finish off everything.
 
We must add another additional argument to finish off everything.
 
 
<pre>
 
<pre>
 
syn region celDescBlock start="{" end="}" fold transparent contains=celNumber,celBlockCmd
 
syn region celDescBlock start="{" end="}" fold transparent contains=celNumber,celBlockCmd
 
</pre>
 
</pre>
   
The <tt>contains</tt> argument tells the editor which syntax elements this region will contain. In this case keywords and numbers. But we have strings too, right? So let's implement the required syntax elements since we know all about keywords, matches and regions now. In addition we pickup another argument along the way, <tt>contained</tt>.
+
The <code>contains</code> argument tells the editor which syntax elements this region will contain. In this case keywords and numbers. But we have strings too, right? So let's implement the required syntax elements since we know all about keywords, matches and regions now. In addition we pickup another argument along the way, <code>contained</code>.
 
Let's define comments as a syntax element and see how <tt>contained</tt> works.
 
   
 
Let's define comments as a syntax element and see how <code>contained</code> works.
 
<pre>
 
<pre>
 
syn keyword celTodo contained TODO FIXME XXX NOTE
 
syn keyword celTodo contained TODO FIXME XXX NOTE
Line 220: Line 170:
 
</pre>
 
</pre>
   
Comments start with a "#" and run until the end of line. So that's a simple regular expression <tt>'#.*$'</tt>. Starts with a "#" and match all characters until the end of a line.
+
Comments start with a "#" and run until the end of line. So that's a simple regular expression <code>'#.*$'</code>. Starts with a "#" and match all characters until the end of a line.
   
<tt>contained</tt> simply tells the editor that the keyword is only valid when contained by another syntax element, in this case a <tt>celTodo</tt> is only treated as a separate syntax element when contained by <tt>celComment</tt>.
+
<code>contained</code> tells the editor that the keyword is only valid when contained by another syntax element, in this case a <code>celTodo</code> is only treated as a separate syntax element when contained by <code>celComment</code>.
 
So let's redefine everything from before, and implement all the required grammar, and bring this puppy together.
 
   
 
====Bringing it together====
 
====Bringing it together====
Line 255: Line 203:
   
 
syn match celHip '\d\{1,6}' nextgroup=celString
 
syn match celHip '\d\{1,6}' nextgroup=celString
syn region celDescBlock start="{" end="}" fold transparent contains=ALLBUT,celHip,celDesc
+
syn region celDescBlock start="{" end="}" fold transparent contains=ALLBUT,celHip,celString
   
 
syn keyword celBlockCmd RA Dec Distance AbsMag nextgroup=celNumber
 
syn keyword celBlockCmd RA Dec Distance AbsMag nextgroup=celNumber
syn keyword celBlockCmd SpectralType nextgroup=celString
+
syn keyword celBlockCmd SpectralType nextgroup=celDesc
 
</pre>
 
</pre>
   
 
==Telling Vim how to highlight + final touches==
 
==Telling Vim how to highlight + final touches==
You've reached the easiest part, just take the syntax element names you've used and use the <tt>hi def link</tt> command to tell Vim how to highlight.
+
We can now take the syntax elements and use the <code>hi def link</code> command to tell Vim how to highlight them.
 
Set the <tt>b:current_syntax</tt> variable to a name. I called it "cel". You'll need that name to modify the Un/Commentify (<F6>/Shift+<F6>) script in Cream for example to block comment-out lines with your new file types.
 
   
 
Set the <code>b:current_syntax</code> variable to a name, for example, "cel". That name can be used to modify the Un/Commentify (F6/Shift-F6) script in Cream, for example to block comment-out lines with the new file type.
 
<pre>
 
<pre>
 
let b:current_syntax = "cel"
 
let b:current_syntax = "cel"
   
hi def link celTodo Todo
+
hi def link celTodo Todo
hi def link celComment Comment
+
hi def link celComment Comment
hi def link celBlockCmd Statement
+
hi def link celBlockCmd Statement
hi def link celHip Type
+
hi def link celHip Type
hi def link celString Constant
+
hi def link celString Constant
hi def link celDesc PreProc
+
hi def link celDesc PreProc
hi def link celNumber Constant
+
hi def link celNumber Constant
 
</pre>
 
</pre>
   
The <tt>hi def link</tt> command has different types of highlighting options that we needn't consider. The ones used here are:
+
The <code>hi def link</code> command has different types of highlighting options that we need not consider. The ones used here are:
 
*<code>Todo</code>: used for the todo comments (ones that have "TODO: something" in them)
 
*<code>Comment</code>: indicates a code comment
 
*<code>Statement</code>: a code statement like a for loop
 
*<code>Type</code>: a user defined type generally
 
*<code>PreProc</code>: a pre-processor statement like <code>#include <stdio.h></code> in C
 
*<code>Constant</code>: like a string or number in code
   
  +
These of course are guidelines. In this example, there are no statements or pre-processor commands, however <code>celBlockCmd</code> has been set to use <code>Statement</code> highlighting, and <code>celHip</code> will use <code>Type</code> highlighting.
*<tt>Todo</tt>: used for the todo comments (ones that have "TODO: blah blah" in them)
 
*<tt>Comment</tt>: indicates a code comment
 
*<tt>Statement</tt>: a code statement like a for loop or something
 
*<tt>Type</tt>: a user defined type generally
 
*<tt>PreProc</tt>: a pre-processor (like a C <tt>#include <stdio.h></tt>)
 
*<tt>Constant</tt>: like a string or number in code
 
   
 
You can view more options in Vim with {{help|syntax}}
These of course are guidelines. For our purposes we really don't have statements or pre-processor commands, since this is really more like a conf file or like HTML. As you can see I set the <tt>celBlockCmd</tt>s to use the Statement highlighting. As for the <tt>celHip</tt> I set that to a <tt>Type</tt> (seems like a close match to meaning).
 
   
  +
===Install the syntax file===
You can view more options in Vim help: {{help|syntax}}
 
  +
Save the file, then install it by copying the file to <code>~/.vim/syntax/cel.vim</code> on Unix-based systems, or to <code>$HOME/vimfiles/syntax/cel.vim</code> on Windows systems.
   
  +
You may need to create the <code>.vim</code> (or <code>vimfiles</code>) directory, and you may need to create the <code>syntax</code> subdirectory. In Vim, your home directory is specified with <code>~</code> on Unix systems, and <code>$HOME</code> on Windows systems. You can see what directories to use by entering commands like the following in Vim:
===Save your work===
 
 
<pre>
Finally save your file as cel.vim (that's what I called it), in your Vim syntax directory (preferably your local one <tt>$HOME/.vim/syntax</tt>).
 
  +
:echo expand('~')
  +
:echo expand('~/.vim/syntax/cel.vim')
  +
:echo $HOME
  +
:echo expand('$HOME/vimfiles/syntax/cel.vim')
 
</pre>
   
  +
Using the directory specified above means the syntax file will be available to you, but not to other users. If you want the syntax file to be available to all users, do not save the file under your home directory; instead, copy the file under your Vim system directory. The default for both Unix and Windows is that system-wide syntax files are placed in the <code>$VIM/vimfiles/syntax</code> directory (which you may need to create). You can see the full path name of the required file by entering the following in Vim:
===Setup your filetype.vim file===
 
 
<pre>
Okay, now we have to make sure Vim knows how to interpret your file. Add your filetype detection to [[filetype.vim]], in this case your vim script is named cel.vim so you are going to use the filetype "cel".
 
  +
:echo expand('$VIM/vimfiles/syntax/cel.vim')
 
</pre>
   
  +
Another procedure to show the base directories which can be used is to enter either of the following commands in Vim (the first displays the value of the <code>'runtimepath'</code> option, and the second inserts that value into the current buffer):
 
<pre>
  +
:set runtimepath?
  +
:put =&runtimepath
 
</pre>
  +
  +
By default, the first item in <code>runtimepath</code> is the base directory for your personal Vim files, and the second item is the base directory for system-wide Vim files. Place the <code>syntax</code> subdirectory under either of these directories; doing that means your syntax file will not be overwritten when you next upgrade Vim. Do not use a directory containing the files distributed with Vim because that will be overwritten during an upgrade (in particular, do not use the <code>$VIMRUNTIME</code> directory).
  +
  +
===Make Vim recognize the filetype===
  +
Now we have to make sure Vim knows how to interpret your file. There are a few methods to add filetype detection for files of this new type. See {{help|new-filetype}} for full details, but the basics are here.
  +
  +
====Add a file in the ftdetect directory====
  +
This is probably the simplest method.
  +
  +
Simply create a file in <code>~/.vim/ftdetect</code> with the same name as your syntax file, in this case <code>~/.vim/ftdetect/cel.vim</code>. In this file place a single line to set the filetype on buffer read or creation:
  +
  +
au BufRead,BufNewFile *.stc set filetype=cel
  +
  +
Note that this will override any previously detected filetype with the new filetype.
  +
 
====Add to [[filetype.vim]]====
 
Add filetype detection to [[filetype.vim]]: in this case the Vim script is named <code>cel.vim</code> so we use the filetype "cel".
 
<pre>
 
<pre>
 
au BufRead,BufNewFile *.stc setfiletype cel
 
au BufRead,BufNewFile *.stc setfiletype cel
 
</pre>
 
</pre>
  +
  +
Note the use of {{help|prefix=no|:setfiletype}} instead of <code>set filetype=</code>. This is so that Vim does not override any previously detected filetypes while running this script. Details {{help|:setfiletype}}.
  +
  +
====Add to scripts.vim====
  +
This method does not apply in our example case, but some filetypes can only be detected by examining buffer contents. For example, maybe you have a config file that is actually in XML format but does not have a normal file extension reflecting that, like *.xml. Details at {{help|new-filetype-scripts}}. Basically you just add tests using {{help|prefix=no|getline()}}, {{help|prefix=no|search()}}, etc. and use them to determine whether to set the filetype with {{help|prefix=no|:setfiletype}}.
   
 
==See also==
 
==See also==
 
*[[Syntax folding of Vim scripts]] for an example of adding to an existing syntax instead of creating your own as this tip demonstrates.
 
*[[Syntax folding of Vim scripts]] for an example of adding to an existing syntax instead of creating your own as this tip demonstrates.
*An actual stc syntax file: [[User:Clearmoments/celstarcat|celstarcat.vim]]
+
*[[User:Clearmoments/celstarcat|celstarcat.vim]] an actual stc syntax file
*An actual ssc syntax file: [[User:Clearmoments/celssc|celssc.vim]]
+
*[[User:Clearmoments/celssc|celssc.vim]] an actual ssc syntax file
   
 
==Comments==
 
==Comments==
 
{{Todo}}
 
{{Todo}}
  +
*Is Ctrl-F9 something to do with Cream?
*Check out that Windows $HOME stuff. The "proper" procedure for setting $HOME on Windows involves setting the home folder on the Profile tab of the user's properties in lusrmgr.msc (Windows 2000 or later). We need a tip on this; then just link to it.
 
  +
*The "Setup your filetype.vim file" section needs a bit more explanation since the linked tip is rather waffly and possibly incorrect (it refers to <code>%USERPROFILE%</code> on Windows).
*When I get a chance, I'll think about what to recommend for where syntax files should be placed. I suspect that the following statement is a little too dogmatic: "Syntax files ... are located in your personal <tt>$HOME/.vim/syntax</tt> directory".
 
 
----
 
Also mention using the $HOME/vimfiles/syntax (or $HOME/.vim/syntax) directory for syntax files that not everyone on the system will need. Less likely to be "blown away" by accident, and it won't need to be copied every version of Vim that comes out.
 
--[[User:Fritzophrenic|Fritzophrenic]] 13:15, 29 April 2008 (UTC)
 
   
  +
===Directories===
----
 
  +
I have removed the following advice for MacVim on Mac OS (but will keep this for a while as an explanation):
You shouldn't add it in the $VIMRUNTIME syntax directory anyways, but in the $VIM/vimfiles/syntax directory for files that should be machine-shared and Vim-version-independent.
 
 
:For MacVim, put the syntax file in directory <code>/Applications/MacVim.app/Contents/Resources/vim/runtime/syntax</code>
--[[User:JeremyBarton|JeremyBarton]] 07:54, 30 September 2008 (UTC)
 
 
:To get there, right click MacVim in the Applications directory and "Show Package Contents".
  +
While I have no knowledge of MacVim, I have found confirmation that the above is the directory containing Vim's syntax files (i.e. those distributed with Vim). It is always a mistake to make changes in a distribution directory because updating Vim may (and one day will) cause your changes to be lost. [[User:JohnBeckett|JohnBeckett]] 08:55, June 6, 2010 (UTC)
   
  +
==TOhtml==
----
 
  +
It would be nice to have a resulting TOhtml dump in this article

Revision as of 14:37, 27 May 2014

Tip 1561 Printable Monobook Previous Next

created 2008 · complexity intermediate · author Clearmoments · version 7.0


This is a tutorial showing how to create your own syntax files in Vim. This provides syntax highlighting to show the different elements of files that you use. In this tutorial, all file names matching a particular extension will use the highlighting rules defined with the syntax commands shown below.

Example: Celestia star catalogs

This tutorial creates a syntax file for Celestia star catalogs. Celestia is a great program for anyone who likes astronomy and space. All we need to know for this tutorial is that a star catalog lists a star name with its positional information, distance and attributes (color, radius, mass, brightness). Here is an example entry in a star catalog file (.stc):

600000 "My Star"
{
  RA 24.406489
  Dec -9.404052
  SpectralType "Q"
  Mass 1.09
  AbsMag 1.29
  Distance 124.729260
}

The entry consists of a number, a string, and a {...} block, with some keywords within that block ("RA", "Dec", etc). Comments are prefixed with "#" like in shell scripts or conf files. There can be multiple entries like this with a number (the HIP number), the string, and the block containing the attributes. Celestia gets more complicated than this because you can have multiple stars going around a barycenter, but we will only cover stars.

Syntax files

Build a syntax file

First, create a new file named cel.vim with the following contents:

" Vim syntax file
" Language: Celestia Star Catalogs
" Maintainer: Kevin Lauder
" Latest Revision: 26 April 2008

if exists("b:current_syntax")
  finish
endif

Vim comments start with a quote. Following the convention of the built-in syntax files, we start with a comment flower box. The test if exists("b:current_syntax") ... checks whether an earlier file has defined a syntax already. If so, the script exits with finish.

Keyword, match and region elements

There are three major syntax elements, and commands to describe those elements. In order to syntax highlight, we must be able to describe what to highlight. Here is an example of what they look like:

" Keywords
syn keyword syntaxElementKeyword keyword1 keyword2 nextgroup=syntaxElement2

" Matches
syn match syntaxElementMatch 'regexp' contains=syntaxElement1 nextgroup=syntaxElement2 skipwhite

" Regions
syn region syntaxElementRegion start='x' end='y'

Keywords

Keywords are simple. Take for example the programming language BASIC. In BASIC there are several keywords like PRINT, OPEN and IF. To have Vim recognize them, you can use a definition:

syn keyword basicLanguageKeywords PRINT OPEN IF

For now we are not going to worry about nextgroup=.

Vim will now recognize the keywords PRINT, OPEN and IF as syntax elements of type basicLanguageKeywords. You can add more on the same line, or add another line with the same type (basicLanguageKeywords). For example, to add the keywords DO, WHILE and WEND, you could add to the previous line like this:

syn keyword basicLanguageKeywords PRINT OPEN IF DO WHILE WEND

or, add another line, like this:

syn keyword basicLanguageKeywords PRINT OPEN IF
syn keyword basicLanguageKeywords DO WHILE WEND

We will apply this procedure to our star catalog entry from above:

600000 "My Star"
{
  RA 24.406489
  Dec -9.404052
  SpectralType "Q"
  Mass 1.09
  AbsMag 1.29
  Distance 124.729260
}

We can group the following keywords as part of a syntax element called celBlockCmd by adding the following to our syntax file.

syn keyword celBlockCmd RA Dec SpectralType Mass Distance AbsMag

Vim will now recognize these keywords which may be sufficient for your purpose. However, what if we want to match the text following the keywords, like those numbers and string values?

Matches (and addendum to keywords)

All this keyword stuff logically leads to matches. Take the above example once again. After the keywords ("RA", "Dec", "AbsMag" etc) there are numbers. We want Vim to know that following a certain keyword there is going to be some set of characters, perhaps defined as a regular expression.

This is where matches come in; along with an additional caveat to using keywords, the nextgroup and skipwhite arguments as seen above.

syn match celNumber '\d\+'
syn keyword celBlockCmd RA Dec Mass Distance AbsMag nextgroup=celNumber skipwhite

Now as you can see the match was given a regular expression \d\+ meaning to match one or more (\+) digits 0-9 (\d). The keyword syntax element celBlockCmd has been modified slightly because following the SpectralType keyword is not a number but a string. Hence it has been excluded from the list of keywords for now. Later we will address that problem by creating another regular expression to match strings and apply it to that keyword.

Notice the nextgroup argument. We are telling the editor to expect a celNumber after the keyword. So that is the first pattern the editor will attempt to match after finding one of those keywords.

The skipwhite argument simply tells the editor to expect some whitespace (spaces or tabs) between the keyword and the number.

One problem is that the above pattern (\d\+) will only match numbers like 1234, 93, and 0. It will not match numbers like 3.1416 or -1. To fix that, we need a more advanced regular expression borrowed from one of the existing Vim syntax files and slightly modified for our needs.

" Integer with - + or nothing in front
syn match celNumber '\d\+'
syn match celNumber '[-+]\d\+'

" Floating point number with decimal no E or e (+,-)
syn match celNumber '\d\+\.\d*'
syn match celNumber '[-+]\d\+\.\d*'

" Floating point like number with E and no decimal point (+,-)
syn match celNumber '[-+]\=\d[[:digit:]]*[eE][\-+]\=\d\+'
syn match celNumber '\d[[:digit:]]*[eE][\-+]\=\d\+'

" Floating point like number with E and decimal point (+,-)
syn match celNumber '[-+]\=\d[[:digit:]]*\.\d*[eE][\-+]\=\d\+'
syn match celNumber '\d[[:digit:]]*\.\d*[eE][\-+]\=\d\+'

We can keep creating more lines like syn match celNumber pattern to match all those patterns as one syntax element type (in this case celNumber).

Regions

Looking at the star catalog entry again shows another challenge:

600000 "My Star"
{
  RA 24.406489
  Dec -9.404052
  SpectralType "Q"
  Mass 1.09
  AbsMag 1.29
  Distance 124.729260
}

The first number is outside the brackets, and it's not really a number, it's an HIP catalog entry (more like a star's ID number rather than a value with physical meaning like mass or distance). The real numbers are the arguments to the keywords (like "RA" and "Dec"). It would be nice if we could have the editor match those differently than regular numbers. But, since celNumbers and HIPs consist of the digits 0-9 they conflict with one another. How can we fix that discrepancy?

Note that numbers with values exist only within brackets. Outside of the brackets it is an ID number rather than a value. We have to add another argument to the keyword and match definition blocks, and introduce another type of syntax element: a region.

First, we let the editor know that the keywords only exist within brackets. Second, we specify that celNumber syntax elements only exist within brackets. This is the concept of a region.

syn region celDescBlock start="{" end="}" fold transparent

The fold argument means that Vim can increase the fold count inside brackets so you can press Ctrl-F9 to expand and contract the code. The transparent is the important keyword here. It tells the editor to continue to apply matches and keywords to what is inside the region. Otherwise the region would not be colorized properly.

We must add another additional argument to finish off everything.

syn region celDescBlock start="{" end="}" fold transparent contains=celNumber,celBlockCmd

The contains argument tells the editor which syntax elements this region will contain. In this case keywords and numbers. But we have strings too, right? So let's implement the required syntax elements since we know all about keywords, matches and regions now. In addition we pickup another argument along the way, contained.

Let's define comments as a syntax element and see how contained works.

syn keyword celTodo contained TODO FIXME XXX NOTE
syn match celComment "#.*$" contains=celTodo

Comments start with a "#" and run until the end of line. So that's a simple regular expression '#.*$'. Starts with a "#" and match all characters until the end of a line.

contained tells the editor that the keyword is only valid when contained by another syntax element, in this case a celTodo is only treated as a separate syntax element when contained by celComment.

Bringing it together

syn keyword celTodo contained TODO FIXME XXX NOTE
syn match celComment "#.*$" contains=celTodo

"----------------------------------------------------------------
" Celestia Star Catalog Numbers
"----------------------------------------------------------------

" Regular int like number with - + or nothing in front
syn match celNumber '\d\+' contained display
syn match celNumber '[-+]\d\+' contained display

" Floating point number with decimal no E or e (+,-)
syn match celNumber '\d\+\.\d*' contained display
syn match celNumber '[-+]\d\+\.\d*' contained display

" Floating point like number with E and no decimal point (+,-)
syn match celNumber '[-+]\=\d[[:digit:]]*[eE][\-+]\=\d\+' contained display
syn match celNumber '\d[[:digit:]]*[eE][\-+]\=\d\+' contained display

" Floating point like number with E and decimal point (+,-)
syn match celNumber '[-+]\=\d[[:digit:]]*\.\d*[eE][\-+]\=\d\+' contained display
syn match celNumber '\d[[:digit:]]*\.\d*[eE][\-+]\=\d\+' contained display

syn region celString start='"' end='"' contained
syn region celDesc start='"' end='"'

syn match celHip '\d\{1,6}' nextgroup=celString
syn region celDescBlock start="{" end="}" fold transparent contains=ALLBUT,celHip,celString

syn keyword celBlockCmd RA Dec Distance AbsMag nextgroup=celNumber
syn keyword celBlockCmd SpectralType nextgroup=celDesc

Telling Vim how to highlight + final touches

We can now take the syntax elements and use the hi def link command to tell Vim how to highlight them.

Set the b:current_syntax variable to a name, for example, "cel". That name can be used to modify the Un/Commentify (F6/Shift-F6) script in Cream, for example to block comment-out lines with the new file type.

let b:current_syntax = "cel"

hi def link celTodo        Todo
hi def link celComment     Comment
hi def link celBlockCmd    Statement
hi def link celHip         Type
hi def link celString      Constant
hi def link celDesc        PreProc
hi def link celNumber      Constant

The hi def link command has different types of highlighting options that we need not consider. The ones used here are:

  • Todo: used for the todo comments (ones that have "TODO: something" in them)
  • Comment: indicates a code comment
  • Statement: a code statement like a for loop
  • Type: a user defined type generally
  • PreProc: a pre-processor statement like #include <stdio.h> in C
  • Constant: like a string or number in code

These of course are guidelines. In this example, there are no statements or pre-processor commands, however celBlockCmd has been set to use Statement highlighting, and celHip will use Type highlighting.

You can view more options in Vim with :help syntax

Install the syntax file

Save the file, then install it by copying the file to ~/.vim/syntax/cel.vim on Unix-based systems, or to $HOME/vimfiles/syntax/cel.vim on Windows systems.

You may need to create the .vim (or vimfiles) directory, and you may need to create the syntax subdirectory. In Vim, your home directory is specified with ~ on Unix systems, and $HOME on Windows systems. You can see what directories to use by entering commands like the following in Vim:

:echo expand('~')
:echo expand('~/.vim/syntax/cel.vim')
:echo $HOME
:echo expand('$HOME/vimfiles/syntax/cel.vim')

Using the directory specified above means the syntax file will be available to you, but not to other users. If you want the syntax file to be available to all users, do not save the file under your home directory; instead, copy the file under your Vim system directory. The default for both Unix and Windows is that system-wide syntax files are placed in the $VIM/vimfiles/syntax directory (which you may need to create). You can see the full path name of the required file by entering the following in Vim:

:echo expand('$VIM/vimfiles/syntax/cel.vim')

Another procedure to show the base directories which can be used is to enter either of the following commands in Vim (the first displays the value of the 'runtimepath' option, and the second inserts that value into the current buffer):

:set runtimepath?
:put =&runtimepath

By default, the first item in runtimepath is the base directory for your personal Vim files, and the second item is the base directory for system-wide Vim files. Place the syntax subdirectory under either of these directories; doing that means your syntax file will not be overwritten when you next upgrade Vim. Do not use a directory containing the files distributed with Vim because that will be overwritten during an upgrade (in particular, do not use the $VIMRUNTIME directory).

Make Vim recognize the filetype

Now we have to make sure Vim knows how to interpret your file. There are a few methods to add filetype detection for files of this new type. See :help new-filetype for full details, but the basics are here.

Add a file in the ftdetect directory

This is probably the simplest method.

Simply create a file in ~/.vim/ftdetect with the same name as your syntax file, in this case ~/.vim/ftdetect/cel.vim. In this file place a single line to set the filetype on buffer read or creation:

au BufRead,BufNewFile *.stc set filetype=cel

Note that this will override any previously detected filetype with the new filetype.

Add to filetype.vim

Add filetype detection to filetype.vim: in this case the Vim script is named cel.vim so we use the filetype "cel".

au BufRead,BufNewFile *.stc setfiletype cel

Note the use of :setfiletype instead of set filetype=. This is so that Vim does not override any previously detected filetypes while running this script. Details :help :setfiletype.

Add to scripts.vim

This method does not apply in our example case, but some filetypes can only be detected by examining buffer contents. For example, maybe you have a config file that is actually in XML format but does not have a normal file extension reflecting that, like *.xml. Details at :help new-filetype-scripts. Basically you just add tests using getline(), search(), etc. and use them to determine whether to set the filetype with :setfiletype.

See also

Comments

 TO DO 

  • Is Ctrl-F9 something to do with Cream?
  • The "Setup your filetype.vim file" section needs a bit more explanation since the linked tip is rather waffly and possibly incorrect (it refers to %USERPROFILE% on Windows).

Directories

I have removed the following advice for MacVim on Mac OS (but will keep this for a while as an explanation):

For MacVim, put the syntax file in directory /Applications/MacVim.app/Contents/Resources/vim/runtime/syntax
To get there, right click MacVim in the Applications directory and "Show Package Contents".

While I have no knowledge of MacVim, I have found confirmation that the above is the directory containing Vim's syntax files (i.e. those distributed with Vim). It is always a mistake to make changes in a distribution directory because updating Vim may (and one day will) cause your changes to be lost. JohnBeckett 08:55, June 6, 2010 (UTC)

TOhtml

It would be nice to have a resulting TOhtml dump in this article