ikiwiki/doc/plugins/highlight.mdwn

[[!template id=plugin name=highlight author="[[Joey]]"]]
[[!tag type/format]]

This plugin allows ikiwiki to syntax highlight source code, using
a fast syntax highlighter that supports over a hundred programming
languages and file formats.

## prerequisites

You will need to install the perl bindings to the
[highlight library](http://www.andre-simon.de/). In Debian
they are in the [[!debpkg libhighlight-perl]] package. If
your distribution does not have them, look in `examples/swig`
in highlight's source.

## embedding highlighted code

To embed highlighted code on a page, you can use the
[[format]] plugin.

For example:

	\[[!format c """
	void main () {
		printf("hello, world!");
	}
	"""]]

	\[[!format diff """
	-bar
	+foo
	"""]]

You can do this for any extension or language name supported by
the [highlight library](http://www.andre-simon.de/) -- basically anything
you can think of should work.

## highlighting entire source files

To enable syntax highlighting of entire standalone source files, use the
`tohighlight` setting in your setup file to control which files should be
syntax highlighted. Here is a typical setting for it, enabling highlighting
for files with the extensions .c, etc, and also for any files named
"Makefile".

	tohighlight => ".c .h .cpp .pl .py Makefile:make",

It knows what language to use for most filename extensions (see
`/etc/highlight/filetypes.conf` for a partial list), but if you want to
bind an unusual filename extension, or any file without an extension
(such as a Makefile), to a language, you can do so by appending a colon
and the name of the language, as illustrated for Makefiles above.

With the plugin configured this way, source files become full-fledged
wiki pages, which means they can include [[WikiLinks|ikiwiki/wikilink]]
and [[directives|ikiwiki/directive]] like any other page can, and are also
affected by the [[smiley]] plugin, if it is enabled. This can be annoying
if your code accidentially contains things that look like those.

On the other hand, this also allows your syntax highlighed
source code to contain markdown formatted comments and hyperlinks
to other code files, like this:

	/* \[[!format mdwn """
		This comment will be formatted as *markdown*!

		See \[[bar.h]].
	""]] */

Finally, bear in mind that this lets anyone who can edit a page in your
wiki also edit source code files that are in your wiki. Use appropriate
caution.

## colors

The colors etc used for the syntax highlighting are entirely configurable
by CSS. See ikiwiki's [[style.css]] for the defaults.