custom keyword highlighted as todo in vi

Question

Starting with vim and love that it highlights todo comments. Around here, however we use a custom keyword (first initial last initial todo: abTODO) so it's easy to grep for todos that apply to a specific person.

I'd love to add mine as a keyword that vi picks up and highlights along with todo, fixme and xxx.

In vim, how do I highlight TODO: and FIXME:? seems to apply, but using the following does not work:

syn match   myTodo   contained   "abTODO"
hi def link myTodo Todo

UPDATE

In my .vimrc I have the following 3 lines (as suggested):

syntax enable
syn match myTodo "\<\l\{2\}TODO\>"
hi def link myTodo Todo

That is a lowercase L, not 1. However abTODO is still not being highlighted at all.

That's very strange. Do you have a filetype set (`:set ft`)? If so, it might be better to add the lines to the relevant syntax file, or to $HOME/.vim/after/syntax/FILETYPE.vim. — Prince Goulash, Dec 09 '11 at 20:21

Prince Goulash · Answer 1 · 2011-12-07T22:34:33.410

3

Try this match:

syn match myTodo "\<\l\{2\}TODO\>"

Explanation:

\< matches the beginning of a word
\l\{2\} matches precisely two lowercase letters
TODO\> matches the string TODO at the end of the word

Your highlight command is fine at it is. I don't think the contained option is necessary here.

edited Dec 07 '11 at 22:34

answered Dec 07 '11 at 22:22

Prince Goulash

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I keep seeing \1\2 instead of \l\2 (mistaking L for one). – idbrii Dec 08 '11 at 00:32
Unfortunately this isn't working for me. Is there something else I'm missing? If I had a fresh vimrc what should be there? – Gidgidonihah Dec 08 '11 at 16:55
You still need your line "hi def link myTodo Todo", and as pydave notes, it's a lower-case "L", not a number "1". – Prince Goulash Dec 08 '11 at 17:09
As explained in the updated question, that's what I have to no avail. – Gidgidonihah Dec 09 '11 at 17:08

custom keyword highlighted as todo in vi

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