How do I enable syntax highlighting for my Gemfile in Sublime Text 2?

Question

I recently started using Sublime Text 2. What an awesome editor. It does a great job of highlighting Ruby code, but it does not highlight my Gemfile.

Is there a way to get it to do that?

I found this Gist but it has no instructions on how to use it.

you can probably tell the editor to apply ruby syntax highlighting. After all the gemfile is ruby syntax. but then, what do you put into your gemfile. you're not putting your whole rails app in there, are you? — three
– three, Commented Dec 22, 2011 at 17:42
@three, not at all! It's just that whenever I open the Gemfile, there's no syntax highlighting. I just found the option though. It dones't remember. I have to do it every time I open the file. :/ — Mohamad
– Mohamad, Commented Dec 22, 2011 at 17:49

Dave Newton · Accepted Answer · 2013-11-22 18:49:23Z

34

There are at least three options:

Switch syntax manually (not preferred, but easy; no explanation required)
Add "Gemfile" to the list of Ruby-syntax files
Use the plugin you link to and create a package for it

1. No explanation, but handy trick

You can bind a keystroke to set syntax without moving to the mouse.

I bound syntax changing to Ctrl-Opt-Space by adding the following to my user keybindings:

[
  { "keys": ["ctrl+alt+space"], 
    "command": "show_overlay", 
    "args": { "overlay": "command_palette", "text": "Set Syntax: " } }
]

2. Add "Gemfile" to list of Ruby-syntax files

Linux: ~/.config/sublime-text-2/Packages/Ruby/Ruby.tmLanguage
OS X: ~/Library/Application Support/Sublime Text 2/Packages/Ruby/Ruby.tmLanguage
Windows: %APPDATA%/Sublime Text 2/Packages/Ruby/Ruby.tmLanguage

You can also get there by using the menu option Preferences -> Browse Packages and going into the Ruby package. Once you're in the file it'll be obvious: it's the <array> element with Ruby-looking filenames. Add <string>Gemfile</string> and you're all set.

It's possible the setting could get overwritten on an upgrade; I'm not sure how that works with ST2–it may be cleaner to do it through code as in the snippet.

3. Using the snippet you linked to

More work (and the correction of one syntax error). You can either do it manually, by creating a directory in Packages (see above for location) or create an actual package and allow ST2 to install it.

I created a test package called "Syntax" and copied the snippet into it, restarted ST2, and opening a Gemfile worked as expected. The correction required an additional colon (new gist), nutshell:

elif name[-3] == "erb": # Needed a semi-colon here.
  set_sintax(view, "HTML (Rails)", "Rails")

edited Nov 22, 2013 at 18:49

answered Dec 22, 2011 at 18:03

Dave Newton

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4 Comments

Unixmonkey Over a year ago

On OSX, it's ~/Library/Application Support/Sublime Text 2/Packages/Ruby/Ruby.tmLanguage. I dropped it in right below <string>Rakefile</string>. This has always bugged me too. Thanks to you; and to Mohamad for asking!

Dave Newton Over a year ago

@Unixmonkey Oh, right; I was going to add that but got distracted. I think the python approach is more interesting, but it was more of a pain to get running (mostly because of that syntax error I didn't notice until I finally opened the console view :/

Ben Kreeger Over a year ago

Thanks, @DaveNewton! If there's a way to make sure this doesn't get borked by updates to the Ruby bundle (i.e., moving it to a user-scoped settings file), I'd love to hear it.

Dave Newton Over a year ago

@BenjaminKreeger I'm not sure if it's 100% borkless, but using the snippet in your own shouldn't be overwritten, at least. I'm not super-clear on how/where the packaging stuff works yet, though.

Jay Killeen · Accepted Answer · 2015-01-06 23:25:41Z

If you are here but are using Sublime Text 3 you might not be able able to find the 'list of Ruby-syntax files' in packages.

Most other solutions found online were confusing to me.

I fixed this by manually changing Gemfile to Ruby in the bottom right hand corner file extension menu item when you have opened the file in Sublime Text 3 (which is what I had been doing each time I opened the file up until now).

Once you have selected ruby then go to Preferences -> Settings-More -> Syntax Specific-User

{
  "extensions":
  [
    "Gemfile",
    "Gemfile.lock"
  ]
}

When you navigate to Syntax Specific User it opens a file specific to the language that the file has syntax highlighting for. You may need to change the file back to whatever it is defaulting too (mine was 'Rd (R Documentation).sublime-settings') and removing Gemfile from that Syntax highlighting file.

In Ubuntu these files are stored at

~/.config/sublime-text-3/Packages/User

nmott · Accepted Answer · 2012-06-07 05:59:43Z

2

The DetectSyntax plugin for ST2 provides a more comprehensive solution to highlighting files - It allows file highlighting based on rules. It's smart enough to understand the difference between a Rails file, other files that use .rb as an extension and standard ruby files.

The standard rules include Gemfile, Rakefile, Guardfile and others matched to Ruby for Syntax formatting.

See DetectSyntax on GitHub.

answered Jun 7, 2012 at 5:59

nmott

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ZorGleH · Accepted Answer · 2012-04-11 15:44:42Z

-1

You can achieve this by copying the HTML.tmLanguage file in the User/ folder, this way it won't be overwritten by an update.

answered Apr 11, 2012 at 15:44

ZorGleH

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1 Comment

Dave Newton Over a year ago

How does that affect syntax highlighting for a Gemfile?

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