Search notes:

vim syntax highlighting

Enabling syntax highlighting

:syntax enable

Syntax items

Three types of syntax items:

Keywords (Can only match complete words): :syntax keyword …
Match (matches a regular expression): :syntax match …
Region (Starts and ends with a regular expression): : syntax region …

Syntax groups

A syntax group consists of multiple syntax items.

TODO: compare with highlight group.

Highlight groups

Three types of highlight groups:

Those for specific languages. Their names start with name of language. Often without attributes, but linked to second type
Those for all syntax languages
Those for the highlight option.

Variables

The name of the loaded syntax for a buffer is stored in b:current_syntax.

See also

$VIMRUNTIME/syntax/2html.vim.