How to make vim apply /var/log/messages syntax highlighting to any file called "messages" or "messages-*"?

Question

I love vim's colorization of /var/log/messages, but it only works for that – the absolute filename. It doesn't work for older rotations of messages (e.g. /var/log/messages-20120610) or for messages files I get from other systems. How can I tweak this?

score 38 · Accepted Answer · answered Jun 28 '12 at 00:48

38

When you have the file open, you can run:

:set filetype=messages

To automate this for all files called messages, put the following into ~/.vim/ftdetect/messages.vim:

autocmd BufNewFile,BufReadPost *messages* :set filetype=messages

answered Jun 28 '12 at 00:48

Thor

16,942
3
52
69

1

BRILLIANT! I'll be using "messages*", but this is *exactly* what I wanted. I love it. Thank you so much. – rsaw Jun 28 '12 at 00:59

score 0 · Answer 2 · answered Jun 28 '12 at 00:48

0

add a line in ~/.vim/filetype.vim,

au BufNewfile,BufRead messages-* set filetype=messages

answered Jun 28 '12 at 00:48

stardiviner

191
1
3
12

Thanks for responding chris. Didn't work for me. – rsaw Jun 28 '12 at 01:01
chris, did you mean `ftdetect.vim`? – Stefan Majewsky Sep 12 '12 at 11:57
1

No, `~/.vim/ftdetect/` is a directory, `~/.vim/filetype.vim`, all `au BufNewfile,BufRead ... set ft=..` can put in this file. more simple. – stardiviner Sep 12 '12 at 22:43
Using that file is not advised. Vim docs say: `:help new-filetype` "... In any way, it's better not to modify the $VIMRUNTIME/filetype.vim file. It will be overwritten when installing a new version of Vim." – Volker Siegel Apr 15 '15 at 21:23
1

`~/.vim/` is not `$VIMRUNTIME` system level. Will not be overwritten by new installed Vim. – stardiviner May 12 '17 at 01:46

How to make vim apply /var/log/messages syntax highlighting to any file called "messages" or "messages-*"?

2 Answers2