Creating new Vim filetype for server logs

In this post I'll show how to create a simple Vim syntax script to highlight source of common error and access logs.

First make sure you have the following folders and files:

~/.vimrc		- the main config
~/.vim/ftdetect		- directory with filetype scripts
~/.vim/syntax		- directory with specific syntax scripts

If something missing, you can copy it from $VIMRUNTIME directory. Find block starting with

if has("autocmd")

and add the following line there:

au BufRead,BufNewFile *.log set filetype=error_log

Create filetype script in ~/.vim/ftdetect/error_log.vim:

if did_filetype()	" filetype already set..
	finish		" ..don't do these checks
endif


au BufRead,BufNewFile *.error.log set filetype=error_log
au BufRead,BufNewFile *.access.log set filetype=error_log

Finally you need syntax script itself, ~/.vim/syntax/error_log.vim:

" Vim syntax file
" Language:    error_log
" Maintainer:  Ruslan Osmanov <rrosmanov at gmail dot com>
" Last Change: Thu Sep  1 15:30:52 MSD 2011
" Version:     1.0

if version < 600
  syntax clear
elseif exists("b:current_syntax")
  finish
endif

" Always ignore case
syn case ignore

" General keywords which don't fall into other categories
syn keyword error_logKeyword 			error warning notice 

" Special values
syn keyword error_logSpecial         	referer client

" Strings (single- and double-quote)
syn region error_logString           start=+"+  skip=+\\\\\|\\"+  end=+"+
syn region error_logString           start=+'+  skip=+\\\\\|\\'+  end=+'+

" Numbers and hexidecimal values
syn match error_logNumber            "-\=\<[0-9]*\>"
syn match error_logNumber            "-\=\<[0-9]*\.[0-9]*\>"
syn match error_logNumber            "-\=\<[0-9][0-9]*e[+-]\=[0-9]*\>"
syn match error_logNumber            "-\=\<[0-9]*\.[0-9]*e[+-]\=[0-9]*\>"
syn match error_logNumber            "\<0x[abcdefABCDEF0-9]*\>"

" IP addresses
syn match error_logIP            	"-\=\<[0-9]*\.[0-9]*\.[0-9]*\.[0-9]*\>"

syn region error_logOperator         start="referrer\:" end="" contains=ALL

" URI
syn match error_logURI            	"http\:\/\/[^ ]*"

" Date 
syn match error_logDate 			"\[[0-9]*\/[a-zA-Z]\{3\}\/\d\{4\}:\d\{2\}:\d\{2\}:\d\{2\} +\d\{4\}\]"
syn match error_logDate				"\[[a-zA-Z]\{3\} [a-zA-Z]\{3\} \d\{2\} \d\{2\}:\d\{2\}:\d\{2\} \d\{4\}\]"

" Domain
syn match error_logDomain            "\(www\.\)\?[a-z0-9\-\_]*\.\(ru\|com\|by\|uz\|ua\|kz\|su\|net\|org\)"

" Define the default highlighting.
" For version 5.7 and earlier: only when not done already
" For version 5.8 and later: only when an item doesn't have highlighting yet
if version >= 508 || !exists("did_error_log_syn_inits")
	if version < 508
		let did_error_log_syn_inits = 1
		command -nargs=+ HiLink hi link <args>
	else
		command -nargs=+ HiLink hi def link <args>
	endif

	HiLink error_logKeyword         Statement
	HiLink error_logIP				Type
	HiLink error_logSpecial  	    Special
	HiLink error_logString          String
	HiLink error_logNumber          Number
	HiLink error_logDate			Comment 
	HiLink error_logURI				Underlined 
	HiLink error_logDomain			Underlined 

	delcommand HiLink
endif

let b:current_syntax = "error_log"
" vim:sw=4:

Change indentation: spaces to tabs

To convert space indentation in significant number of files, you may use the
following script.

#!/bin/bash - 
#===============================================================================
#          FILE:  fixtab.sh
#         USAGE:  ./fixtab.sh <directory>
#   DESCRIPTION:  Convert expanded tabs into tabs with 4 space width
#       OPTIONS: $1 directory
#        AUTHOR: Ruslan Osmanov 
#       CREATED: 04/08/2011 03:26:00 PM UZT
#===============================================================================
set -o nounset                              # Treat unset variables as an error

DIR=$1

function usage(){
 echo "bash $0 <directory>"
}

[[ ! -d $DIR ]] && usage

# Correct existing modelines I used to include modelines beginning from set
# expandtab, so this worked for me. If you don't use modelines, comment it out 
find $DIR -name *.php -exec \
 sed -i -e 's%# vim: set expandtab:%# vim: set noet:%g' {} \;

# Retab & format source code
find $DIR -name *.php -exec \
 vim -u NONE \
 -c 'set ft=php' \
 -c 'set shiftwidth=4' \
 -c 'set tabstop=4' \
 -c 'set noexpandtab!' \
 -c 'set noet' \
 -c 'retab!' \
 -c 'bufdo! "execute normal gg=G"' \
 -c wq \
 {} \;

For example:

$ bash ./fixtab.sh /srv/www/myproject

I would be glad, if this helped somebody.

When middle click doesn't work in Vim

I mean the Linux feature to use mouse middle click to paste selected text. In vim(not gvim) it sometimes doesn't work. Here I post how to fix it.

In ~/.vimrc find line like

set mouse=a

and change it to

set mouse=r

That's it!

Snippets in Vim

For common programming snippets in Vim install snipMate plugin.

SnipMate supports autoit, cpp, c, html, javascript, java, mako, objc, perl, php, python, ruby, sh, _, snippet, tcl, tex, vim and zsh file types by default. Default completion is <tab> key. I found it useful to change <tab> to ex. Ctrl+J:
in ~/.vim/after/plugin/snipMate.vim changed

ino <silent> <tab> <c-r>=TriggerSnippet()<cr>
snor <silent> <tab> <esc>i<right><c-r>=TriggerSnippet()<cr>

to

ino <c-j> <c-r>=TriggerSnippet()<cr>
snor <c-j> <esc>i<right><c-r>=TriggerSnippet()<cr>

To use multiple filetypes(as well, as corresponding snippets), you can use whether autoCmd in ~/.vimrc like:

au BufRead *.php set ft=php.html
au BufNewFile *.php set ft=php.html

or modeline like:

/* vim: set ft=html.php: */

Really nice plug-in with intellectual features. E.g. in an HTML file you type:

doctype<c-j>

,
and it suggests to choose one of 7 DOCTYPEs:

HTML 4.01 Strict
HTML 4.01 Transitional
HTML 5
XHTML 1.0 Frameset 
etc.

Enjoy!

UPDATE
Some extra snippets could be found here.

To create your own snippet clone a .snippet file in ~/.vim/snippets/ and modify it on your needs. For instance, I've created this one:

$ cat ~/.vim/snippets/sql/s3_localized.snippet
INSERT INTO \`s3_localized\` (\`localized_code\`) VALUES ('${1:SOMETHING}'); 
SET @ins_id:=(SELECT LAST_INSERT_ID());
INSERT INTO \`s3_localized_text\` (\`localized_id\`, \`lang_id\`, \`localized_text\`)
VALUES 
(@ins_id, 1, '${2:rus}'),
(@ins_id, 2, '${3:eng}'),
(@ins_id, 3, '$3'),
(@ins_id, 4, '$3'),
(@ins_id, 5, '$3'),
(@ins_id, 6, '$3'),
(@ins_id, 7, '$3');

It generates

INSERT INTO `s3_localized` (`localized_code`) VALUES ('SOMETHING'); 
SET @ins_id:=(SELECT LAST_INSERT_ID());
INSERT INTO `s3_localized_text` (`localized_id`, `lang_id`, `localized_text`)
VALUES 
(@ins_id, 1, 'rus'),
(@ins_id, 2, 'eng'),
(@ins_id, 3, 'eng'),
(@ins_id, 4, 'eng'),
(@ins_id, 5, 'eng'),
(@ins_id, 6, 'eng'),
(@ins_id, 7, 'eng');

Ctrl+J moves to the next variable declared in snippet. $-references allow change repeated strings simultaneously(as 'eng' above)

Cyrillic-to-English key mapping in Vim and Vimperator

To avoid switching between keyboard layouts in navigation, visual mode etc. within a mixed Cyrillic/English text append the following to your ~/.vimrc:

set langmap=ФИСВУАПРШОЛДЬТЩЗЙКЫЕГМЦЧНЯ;ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ,фисвуапршолдьтщзйкыегмцчня;abcdefghijklmnopqrstuvwxyz

Similar mapping works for Vimperator. If you use Vimperator, append the following whether to ~/.vimperatorrc, or ~/.vimperatorrc.local(where appropriate):

map пе gt
map пЕ gT

map Ф A
map И B
map С C
map В D
map У E
map А F
map П G
map Р H
map Ш I
map О J
map Л K
map Д L
map Ь M
map Т N
map Щ O
map З P
map Й Q
map К R
map Ы S
map Е T
map Г U
map М V
map Ц W
map Ч X
map Н Y
map Я Z
map ф a
map и b
map с c
map в d
map у e
map а f
map п g
map р h
map ш i
map о j
map л k
map д l
map ь m
map т n
map щ o
map з p
map й q
map к r
map ы s
map е t
map г u
map м v
map ц w
map ч x
map н y
map я z