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Q. How do I turn on or off color syntax highlighting in vi or vim text editor under UNIX or Linux?
A. Vim or vi is a text editor. It can be used to edit all kinds of plain text. It is especially useful for editing programs or UNIX/Linux configuration files.
Task: Turn on color syntax highlighting
Open file (for example file.c):
$ vi file.c
Now press ESC key, type : syntax on
:syntax on
Task: Turn off color syntax highlighting
To turn it back off, press ESC key, type : syntax off
:syntax off
You can edit ~/.vimrc file and add command syntax on to it so that next you will start vim with color syntax highlighting option
$ cd
$ vi .vimrc
Append the following line:
syntax on
Save and close the file.
C source code editing while syntax highlighting is on in vi or vim:
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- Last Updated: 5-12-08
{ 12 comments… read them below or add one }
Hey this Syntax-highlighting works!!
Looks cool
Thanks.
In vim editor you can use syntax enable too.
Inside vim in command mode press shift : and write syntax press space and press tab and vim go through out different syntax command
I believe that the exact syntax is “set syntax=on”. At least that is how it works for mine.
@ Bobby, while it may work, I’m guessing you have an extra command after typing vim filename, that is because it’s asking for extra info…and can be avoided by hitting enter the correct way is:
set ts=4
set sw=4
set spell
set spl=en
syntax on
set wrap
set ai
etc….
All of the obove suggestions may not work since on most flavors of linux vi is pointing to vim. unalias vi.
$ which vi
vi=vim
$ unalias vi
$ which vi
/bin/vi
FINALLY I got syntax highlighting turned on. I had no idea how to do it. It wasn’t in the man page at all or anywhere else I had looked online until I found it here. Thanks!
For Ubuntu, you probably have the package “vim-tiny” installed by default.
To check this run:
dpkg -l vim*So install the real vim with:
sudo apt-get install vimor
sudo apt-get install vim-fullOn Debian Etch I originally just had vim-tiny, but I now have:
svn@svn:infrastructure$ dpkg -l vim*Hey Vivek,
Thanks:) it’s working!!!!!!
I am using fedora 5.My editor is VIM 6.4.7.I wanted to highlight keywords of my C program.I tried adding “syntax on” to your $HOME/.vimrc file which is copied from /usr/share/vim/vim64/gvimrc.examples…
and I tried the above mentioned tips also….pls help
Hi,
This doesn’t work in vi. any idea why? i don’t use vim and is there any setup required to use vim?
Thanks,
Senthil
Thanks, this works for me on ubuntu 8.10
It’s great! Thanks.