zsh-syntax-highlighting/docs/highlighters.md
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zsh-syntax-highlighting / highlighters

Syntax highlighting is done by pluggable highlighters:

How to activate highlighters

To activate an highlighter, add it to the ZSH_HIGHLIGHT_HIGHLIGHTERS array in ~/.zshrc, for example:

ZSH_HIGHLIGHT_HIGHLIGHTERS=(main brackets pattern cursor)

By default, $ZSH_HIGHLIGHT_HIGHLIGHTERS is unset and only the main highlighter is active.

How to tweak highlighters

Highlighters look up styles from the ZSH_HIGHLIGHT_STYLES associative array. Navigate into the individual highlighters' documentation to see what styles (keys) each highlighter defines; the syntax for values is the same as the syntax of "types of highlighting" of the zsh builtin $zle_highlight array, which is documented in the zshzle(1) manual page.

Some highlighters support additional configuration parameters; see each highlighter's documentation for details and examples.

How to implement a new highlighter

To create your own myhighlighter highlighter:

  • Create your script at highlighters/${myhighlighter}/${myhighlighter}-highlighter.zsh.

  • Implement the _zsh_highlight_myhighlighter_highlighter_predicate function. This function must return 0 when the highlighter needs to be called and non-zero otherwise, for example:

      _zsh_highlight_myhighlighter_highlighter_predicate() {
        # Call this highlighter in SVN working copies
        [[ -d .svn ]]
      }
    
  • Implement the _zsh_highlight_myhighlighter_highlighter function. This function does the actual syntax highlighting, by modifying region_highlight, for example:

      _zsh_highlight_myhighlighter_highlighter() {
        # Colorize the whole buffer with blue background
        region_highlight+=(0 $#BUFFER bg=blue)
      }
    
  • Activate your highlighter in ~/.zshrc:

      ZSH_HIGHLIGHT_HIGHLIGHTERS+=(myhighlighter)