Entries tagged syntax

How to change nano syntax highlighting for arbitrary filename extensions

Posted on 17. Dezember 2014 Comments

The text editor nano manages syntax highlighting through .nanorc files. Say, we have files with the ending .phpx, but would like PHP syntax highlighting.

$ sudo nano /usr/share/nano/php.nanorc

Change this line

syntax "php" "\.php[2345s~]?$"

to this regex:

syntax "php" "\.php[x2345s~]?$".

Alternativly, e.g. if you don’t have sudo rights for /usr/share/nano/php.nanorc, you can do the following

$cp /usr/share/nano/php.nanorc ~/.phpx.nanorc

Then enter the following line in ~/.nanorc:

include ~/.phpx.nanorc

Then, change the line as mentioned above and syntax „php“ into syntax „phpx“