SyntaxHighlightingPlugin

Highlights code fragments for many languages using enscript.

Description

The Syntax Highlighting Plugin is used to emphasize the rendering of your wiki text according to several languages.

It uses enscript to render its output.

It supports the following languages :

1. ada
2. asm
3. awk
4. bash
5. c
6. changelog
7. cpp (c++)
8. csh
9. delphi
10. diff
11. diffs
12. diffu
13. dylan
14. eiffel
15. elisp
16. f90
17. forth
18. fortran
19. fortran_pp (fortran77)
20. haskell
21. html
22. icon
23. idl
24. inf
25. java
26. javascript (js)
27. ksh
28. lua
29. m4
30. mail
31. makefile
32. matlab
33. nroff
34. oberon2
35. objc
36. octave
37. outline
38. oz
39. pascal
40. perl
41. postscript
42. pyrex
43. python
44. rfc
45. ruby
46. scheme
47. sh
48. skill
49. Smalltalk
50. sml
51. sql
52. states
53. synopsys
54. tcl
55. tcsh
56. tex
57. vba
58. verilog
59. vhdl
60. vrml
61. wmlscript
62. zsh

Syntax Rules

To use this plugin, use the following syntax:

%CODE{lang="..." [num="10"]}% 
...code...
%ENDCODE%

The language can be any from the above list. The num setting is optional and will set the starting line number. Use <sticky> tags to prevent Foswiki's WYSIWYG editor from removing line breaks inside the code block:

<sticky>
%CODE{...}%
... code ...
%ENDCODE%
</sticky>

Using SyntaxHighlightingPlugin With Other Syntax Highlighters

Currently all the Foswiki syntax highlighting plugins use the same %CODE% syntax. This allows you to switch the highlighter you use without having to update all your topics to the new syntax. However, it also means that if you have two or more highlighting plugins installed on your system, the plugin that is first in $Foswiki::cfg{PluginsOrder} (or by default, first alphabetically) will consume all the %CODE% blocks.

Version 1.2 of this plugin added support for using the %CODE_ENSCRIPT% syntax, which allows you to explicitly which plugin you want to highlight your code.

Clearly this is not the best solution to the problem of using more than one highlighting plugin. You can read the background on why this approach was taken in the task report.

Examples

The following text:

%CODE{"c++"}%
#include <iostream>
int main()
{
  std::cout << "Hello, world." << std::endl;
}
%ENDCODE%

gives (if installed):

unknown language c++

You can also output numbered lines starting at 10 with this text:

%CODE{"sh" num="10"}% 
#!/bin/sh
languages=`enscript --help-highlight | grep 'Name:' | cut -d ' ' -f 2`
for l in $languages; do
    cat << EOF
   * $l
EOF
done
%ENDCODE% 

gives (if installed):

   10	#!/bin/sh
   11	languages=`enscript --help-highlight | grep 'Name:' | cut -d ' ' -f 2`
   12	for l in $languages; do
   13		 cat << EOF
   14		* $l
   15	EOF
   16	done

Change of Syntax

This plugin used to use the following syntax (pre September 2008):

%begin sh%
...code...
%end%

This has been changed to be more consistent with other Foswiki variables. There is a script included which will replace the old syntax with the new. To use it, copy it from the tools directory and into your data directory. When you run it, it will look through your webs and replace the syntax. Note that its not the best script in the world, so always test it on a copy of your data first!

Installation Instructions

You do not need to install anything in the browser to use this extension. The following instructions are for the administrator who installs the extension on the server.

Open configure, and open the "Extensions" section. "Extensions Operation and Maintenance" Tab -> "Install, Update or Remove extensions" Tab. Click the "Search for Extensions" button. Enter part of the extension name or description and press search. Select the desired extension(s) and click install. If an extension is already installed, it will not show up in the search results.

You can also install from the shell by running the extension installer as the web server user: (Be sure to run as the webserver user, not as root!)

cd /path/to/foswiki
perl tools/extension_installer <NameOfExtension> install

If you have any problems, or if the extension isn't available in configure, then you can still install manually from the command-line. See https://foswiki.org/Support/ManuallyInstallingExtensions for more help.

You should ensure the path to enscript is correctly set in configure before enabling the plugin.

Dependencies

Name	Version	Description
enscript	>1.6.4	Required. Known to work with version 1.6.4 and not with 1.6.1

Change History

26 Apr 2022:	2.00: rewrite and cleanup -- Foswiki:Main.MichaelDaum
25 Oct 2010:	1.21: Documentation updates. -- Foswiki:Main.AndreasKeil, Foswiki:Main.WillNorris
07 Jun 2009:	1.2: Fixed rendering in numbered lists (Foswikitask:Item8176); Moved configure setting to Extensions heading -- Foswiki:Main.AndrewJones
29 Mar 2009:	1.1: Added %CODE_ENSCRIPT% syntax so it can be used with other syntax highlighters (Foswikitask:Item1353) -- Foswiki:Main.AndrewJones
17 Mar 2009:	1.0: Initial release for Foswiki (Foswikitask:Item1251) -- Foswiki:Main.AndrewJones
11 Sep 2008:	Rewritten to work on TWiki 4.2 (TWikibug:Item5995) -- Foswiki:Main.AndrewJones
12 Jul 2002:	Initial version