Add support for nanorc

[perlun]

Preliminary Steps

Please confirm you have...

• reviewed How Linguist Works,
• reviewed the Troubleshooting docs,
• considered implementing an override,
• verified an issue has not already been logged for your issue (linguist issues).

Problem Description

nano is a very commonly available console-based text editor for GNU/Linux and other systems. It's often installed by default, or easily installable using apt-get or similar mechanisms. Its configuration file is called ~/.nanorc.

It would be great if linguist would provide support (syntax highlighting) for nanorc files. This issue exists to track adding this support.

Here is a reasonably complete syntax definition that could be used if anyone feels like looking into this: https://github.com/perlun/dotfiles/blob/master/nano/syntax/nanorc.nanorc (this file in itself uses the nanorc syntax, so it can also be used as an example)

URL of the affected repository:

Example file: https://github.com/perlun/dotfiles/blob/master/nanorc

Last modified on:

2018-11-22

Expected language:

nanorc

Detected language:

None

[Alhadis]

This would actually be a good idea. Dotfile repos are extremely common on GitHub, and many hackers tend to dig through them looking for tricks. Syntax highlighting for .nanorc files would certainly reach many users.

By the same token, other .*rc files would also benefit from syntax highlighting, such as .curlrc. The only part that bothers me is that the addition would be purely aesthetic, and we don't even have highlighting/classification for .gitignore files (the single most common manifest file in Git repositories).

@pchaigno Any thoughts?

[pchaigno]

I'm all for it, but do we have a Sublime Text, Atom, or TextMate grammar we could use to highlight these files?

[perlun]

@pchaigno Maybe this could be of help?

• https://github.com/otgo/highlight-nanorc (2 years old, but nano probably hasn't changed that much since)

Looked for TextMate or Sublime but couldn't find any.

[Alhadis]

I'm tempted to hack one together, because we could leverage our existing grammar for highlighting regular expressions — all we'd need is a wrapper for it and some .nanorc-specific keyword patterns. 👍

The otgo/highlight-nanorc grammar appears somewhat flaky. Notice the inconsistent highlighting.

[pchaigno]

I'm tempted to hack one together

@Alhadis How much time would you need? Should we use otgo/highlight-nanorc in the meantime?

[Alhadis]

Already finished. Lol...

Haven't published it yet. I'll do so now.

[Alhadis]

There you go. =) How's this?

[pchaigno]

There you go. =) How's this?

Great!

@perlun Do you want to open a pull request (see point 2 of Adding a language) to use @Alhadis' new grammar for nanorc?

[Alhadis]

I'll see how many more grammars I can get ticked off that repository's readme before he submits the PR... 😁

[pchaigno]

@Alhadis If you want to submit the pull request to use your grammar, go ahead, I don't think @perlun is going to...

[Alhadis]

Will do. Should I add the grammars I wrote for .gitignore, .gitattribute and .gitconfig files too? They're, uh, damn near airtight in their syntax and tailored specifically to GitHub's colour scheme...

[pchaigno]

👍

We should probably group the corresponding languages under a common parent language.

[Alhadis]

I guess INI will do. =)

[perlun]

@Alhadis If you want to submit the pull request to use your grammar, go ahead, I don't think @perlun is going to...

Yeah, sorry, I didn't see this until now and I'm pretty certain @Alhadis is a more experienced contributor to the project anyway. =) So, I'm happy to delegate the work in this case. 😉

Many thanks for looking into it! 👍