Vim syntax Highlighting

Question

I have installed vim in Debian 6. I am trying to change color scheme and enable syntax highlighting. But it's not working. I added set background=dark in .vimrc file. But white background is displaying. I wonder what went wrong?

Here is my .vimrc file: http://pastebin.com/8k2gpWDh

I installed robokai colorscheme which has dark background. But the background looks white instead dark. Other colors of colorscheme working.

Have you install the full vim? By default, Debian installs only vim-tiny that does not support syntax coloring. — Didier Trosset
– Didier Trosset, Commented Jun 10, 2011 at 16:18
Thanks.Added syntax on.I added set background=dark in vimrc file.But background is still white. — blakcaps
– blakcaps, Commented Jun 10, 2011 at 16:22
@Didier Trosset :Installed vim-common and vim-runtime as well — blakcaps
– blakcaps, Commented Jun 10, 2011 at 16:24

sidyll · Accepted Answer · 2011-06-10 16:21:42Z

14

Make sure you have

syntax on

And then call

color[scheme] {name}

To set your desired colorscheme. These contain the set background=dark you refered, so it should be a matter of choosing the right one. Vim comes with some color schemes, but you may want to install new ones.

This page and this one provide tips on color schemes, and there is a test page very helpful when choosing colorschemes.

answered Jun 10, 2011 at 16:21

sidyll

59.5k14 gold badges115 silver badges155 bronze badges

Sign up to request clarification or add additional context in comments.

1 Comment

John Greene Jan 20 at 17:17

Not nitpicking but it is actually colo[rscheme].

Pablo Castellazzi · Accepted Answer · 2011-06-12 07:00:38Z

2

robokai seem to be written for a 16 color terminal, a linux console probably, but i am guessing here. To make it work if you are using a terminal emulator (like xterm, gnome-terminal, konsole, etc) you may use set t_Co=16 before loading the color scheme or force your terminal type to linux when running vim (TERM=linux vim ...), and manually set a dark background in your terminal emulator,

Also run dpkg --get-selections | grep vim. For vim to work in full you need to see one of: vim-gnome, vim-gtk, vim-lesstiff or vim-nox (for systems without a graphical desktop).

answered Jun 12, 2011 at 7:00

Pablo Castellazzi

4,20925 silver badges21 bronze badges

Comments

sml · Accepted Answer · 2011-06-15 14:51:14Z

2

If you are using a terminal emulator like konsole or gnome-terminal, install vim-gtk or vim-gnome, get CSApprox, and add set t_Co=256 to your .vimrc. This will give you support for any color scheme, in the terminal, even those which supposedly only support gvim.

answered Jun 15, 2011 at 14:51

sml

2,3301 gold badge14 silver badges12 bronze badges

2 Comments

merwok Over a year ago

Thanks! xfce-terminal suddenly changed its compat from xterm to xterm-256color and that messed up my colorscheme. I added set t_Co=8 to the file to restore the previous interpretation of color codes.

John Greene Jan 20 at 17:21

Since &t_Co are lifted from the terminfo file (i.e., /usr/share/terminfo/x/xterm+256color file by vim/nvim, setting the TERM to the desired (and valid) setting would save you one less .vimrc statement in setting the 8 bit. Some valid 8-bit $TERM are: xterm-8bit.

Collectives™ on Stack Overflow

Vim syntax Highlighting

3 Answers 3

1 Comment

Comments

2 Comments

Your Answer

Linked

Hot Network Questions

Collectives™ on Stack Overflow

3 Answers 3

1 Comment

Comments

2 Comments

Your Answer

Sign up or log in

Post as a guest

Linked

Related