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author | Matth?us G. Chajdas <dev@anteru.net> | 2019-11-10 13:56:53 +0100 |
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committer | Matth?us G. Chajdas <dev@anteru.net> | 2019-11-10 13:56:53 +0100 |
commit | 1dd3124a9770e11b6684e5dd1e6bc15a0aa3bc67 (patch) | |
tree | 87a171383266dd1f64196589af081bc2f8e497c3 /doc/docs/lexerdevelopment.rst | |
parent | f1c080e184dc1bbc36eaa7cd729ff3a499de568a (diff) | |
download | pygments-master.tar.gz |
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diff --git a/doc/docs/lexerdevelopment.rst b/doc/docs/lexerdevelopment.rst deleted file mode 100644 index 63bd01a3..00000000 --- a/doc/docs/lexerdevelopment.rst +++ /dev/null @@ -1,728 +0,0 @@ -.. -*- mode: rst -*- - -.. highlight:: python - -==================== -Write your own lexer -==================== - -If a lexer for your favorite language is missing in the Pygments package, you -can easily write your own and extend Pygments. - -All you need can be found inside the :mod:`pygments.lexer` module. As you can -read in the :doc:`API documentation <api>`, a lexer is a class that is -initialized with some keyword arguments (the lexer options) and that provides a -:meth:`.get_tokens_unprocessed()` method which is given a string or unicode -object with the data to lex. - -The :meth:`.get_tokens_unprocessed()` method must return an iterator or iterable -containing tuples in the form ``(index, token, value)``. Normally you don't -need to do this since there are base lexers that do most of the work and that -you can subclass. - - -RegexLexer -========== - -The lexer base class used by almost all of Pygments' lexers is the -:class:`RegexLexer`. This class allows you to define lexing rules in terms of -*regular expressions* for different *states*. - -States are groups of regular expressions that are matched against the input -string at the *current position*. If one of these expressions matches, a -corresponding action is performed (such as yielding a token with a specific -type, or changing state), the current position is set to where the last match -ended and the matching process continues with the first regex of the current -state. - -Lexer states are kept on a stack: each time a new state is entered, the new -state is pushed onto the stack. The most basic lexers (like the `DiffLexer`) -just need one state. - -Each state is defined as a list of tuples in the form (`regex`, `action`, -`new_state`) where the last item is optional. In the most basic form, `action` -is a token type (like `Name.Builtin`). That means: When `regex` matches, emit a -token with the match text and type `tokentype` and push `new_state` on the state -stack. If the new state is ``'#pop'``, the topmost state is popped from the -stack instead. To pop more than one state, use ``'#pop:2'`` and so on. -``'#push'`` is a synonym for pushing the current state on the stack. - -The following example shows the `DiffLexer` from the builtin lexers. Note that -it contains some additional attributes `name`, `aliases` and `filenames` which -aren't required for a lexer. They are used by the builtin lexer lookup -functions. :: - - from pygments.lexer import RegexLexer - from pygments.token import * - - class DiffLexer(RegexLexer): - name = 'Diff' - aliases = ['diff'] - filenames = ['*.diff'] - - tokens = { - 'root': [ - (r' .*\n', Text), - (r'\+.*\n', Generic.Inserted), - (r'-.*\n', Generic.Deleted), - (r'@.*\n', Generic.Subheading), - (r'Index.*\n', Generic.Heading), - (r'=.*\n', Generic.Heading), - (r'.*\n', Text), - ] - } - -As you can see this lexer only uses one state. When the lexer starts scanning -the text, it first checks if the current character is a space. If this is true -it scans everything until newline and returns the data as a `Text` token (which -is the "no special highlighting" token). - -If this rule doesn't match, it checks if the current char is a plus sign. And -so on. - -If no rule matches at the current position, the current char is emitted as an -`Error` token that indicates a lexing error, and the position is increased by -one. - - -Adding and testing a new lexer -============================== - -The easiest way to use a new lexer is to use Pygments' support for loading -the lexer from a file relative to your current directory. - -First, change the name of your lexer class to CustomLexer: - -.. code-block:: python - - from pygments.lexer import RegexLexer - from pygments.token import * - - class CustomLexer(RegexLexer): - """All your lexer code goes here!""" - -Then you can load the lexer from the command line with the additional -flag ``-x``: - -.. code-block:: console - - $ pygmentize -l your_lexer_file.py -x - -To specify a class name other than CustomLexer, append it with a colon: - -.. code-block:: console - - $ pygmentize -l your_lexer.py:SomeLexer -x - -Or, using the Python API: - -.. code-block:: python - - # For a lexer named CustomLexer - your_lexer = load_lexer_from_file(filename, **options) - - # For a lexer named MyNewLexer - your_named_lexer = load_lexer_from_file(filename, "MyNewLexer", **options) - -When loading custom lexers and formatters, be extremely careful to use only -trusted files; Pygments will perform the equivalent of ``eval`` on them. - -If you only want to use your lexer with the Pygments API, you can import and -instantiate the lexer yourself, then pass it to :func:`pygments.highlight`. - -To prepare your new lexer for inclusion in the Pygments distribution, so that it -will be found when passing filenames or lexer aliases from the command line, you -have to perform the following steps. - -First, change to the current directory containing the Pygments source code. You -will need to have either an unpacked source tarball, or (preferably) a copy -cloned from BitBucket. - -.. code-block:: console - - $ cd .../pygments-main - -Select a matching module under ``pygments/lexers``, or create a new module for -your lexer class. - -Next, make sure the lexer is known from outside of the module. All modules in -the ``pygments.lexers`` package specify ``__all__``. For example, -``esoteric.py`` sets:: - - __all__ = ['BrainfuckLexer', 'BefungeLexer', ...] - -Add the name of your lexer class to this list (or create the list if your lexer -is the only class in the module). - -Finally the lexer can be made publicly known by rebuilding the lexer mapping: - -.. code-block:: console - - $ make mapfiles - -To test the new lexer, store an example file with the proper extension in -``tests/examplefiles``. For example, to test your ``DiffLexer``, add a -``tests/examplefiles/example.diff`` containing a sample diff output. - -Now you can use pygmentize to render your example to HTML: - -.. code-block:: console - - $ ./pygmentize -O full -f html -o /tmp/example.html tests/examplefiles/example.diff - -Note that this explicitly calls the ``pygmentize`` in the current directory -by preceding it with ``./``. This ensures your modifications are used. -Otherwise a possibly already installed, unmodified version without your new -lexer would have been called from the system search path (``$PATH``). - -To view the result, open ``/tmp/example.html`` in your browser. - -Once the example renders as expected, you should run the complete test suite: - -.. code-block:: console - - $ make test - -It also tests that your lexer fulfills the lexer API and certain invariants, -such as that the concatenation of all token text is the same as the input text. - - -Regex Flags -=========== - -You can either define regex flags locally in the regex (``r'(?x)foo bar'``) or -globally by adding a `flags` attribute to your lexer class. If no attribute is -defined, it defaults to `re.MULTILINE`. For more information about regular -expression flags see the page about `regular expressions`_ in the Python -documentation. - -.. _regular expressions: http://docs.python.org/library/re.html#regular-expression-syntax - - -Scanning multiple tokens at once -================================ - -So far, the `action` element in the rule tuple of regex, action and state has -been a single token type. Now we look at the first of several other possible -values. - -Here is a more complex lexer that highlights INI files. INI files consist of -sections, comments and ``key = value`` pairs:: - - from pygments.lexer import RegexLexer, bygroups - from pygments.token import * - - class IniLexer(RegexLexer): - name = 'INI' - aliases = ['ini', 'cfg'] - filenames = ['*.ini', '*.cfg'] - - tokens = { - 'root': [ - (r'\s+', Text), - (r';.*?$', Comment), - (r'\[.*?\]$', Keyword), - (r'(.*?)(\s*)(=)(\s*)(.*?)$', - bygroups(Name.Attribute, Text, Operator, Text, String)) - ] - } - -The lexer first looks for whitespace, comments and section names. Later it -looks for a line that looks like a key, value pair, separated by an ``'='`` -sign, and optional whitespace. - -The `bygroups` helper yields each capturing group in the regex with a different -token type. First the `Name.Attribute` token, then a `Text` token for the -optional whitespace, after that a `Operator` token for the equals sign. Then a -`Text` token for the whitespace again. The rest of the line is returned as -`String`. - -Note that for this to work, every part of the match must be inside a capturing -group (a ``(...)``), and there must not be any nested capturing groups. If you -nevertheless need a group, use a non-capturing group defined using this syntax: -``(?:some|words|here)`` (note the ``?:`` after the beginning parenthesis). - -If you find yourself needing a capturing group inside the regex which shouldn't -be part of the output but is used in the regular expressions for backreferencing -(eg: ``r'(<(foo|bar)>)(.*?)(</\2>)'``), you can pass `None` to the bygroups -function and that group will be skipped in the output. - - -Changing states -=============== - -Many lexers need multiple states to work as expected. For example, some -languages allow multiline comments to be nested. Since this is a recursive -pattern it's impossible to lex just using regular expressions. - -Here is a lexer that recognizes C++ style comments (multi-line with ``/* */`` -and single-line with ``//`` until end of line):: - - from pygments.lexer import RegexLexer - from pygments.token import * - - class CppCommentLexer(RegexLexer): - name = 'Example Lexer with states' - - tokens = { - 'root': [ - (r'[^/]+', Text), - (r'/\*', Comment.Multiline, 'comment'), - (r'//.*?$', Comment.Singleline), - (r'/', Text) - ], - 'comment': [ - (r'[^*/]', Comment.Multiline), - (r'/\*', Comment.Multiline, '#push'), - (r'\*/', Comment.Multiline, '#pop'), - (r'[*/]', Comment.Multiline) - ] - } - -This lexer starts lexing in the ``'root'`` state. It tries to match as much as -possible until it finds a slash (``'/'``). If the next character after the slash -is an asterisk (``'*'``) the `RegexLexer` sends those two characters to the -output stream marked as `Comment.Multiline` and continues lexing with the rules -defined in the ``'comment'`` state. - -If there wasn't an asterisk after the slash, the `RegexLexer` checks if it's a -Singleline comment (i.e. followed by a second slash). If this also wasn't the -case it must be a single slash, which is not a comment starter (the separate -regex for a single slash must also be given, else the slash would be marked as -an error token). - -Inside the ``'comment'`` state, we do the same thing again. Scan until the -lexer finds a star or slash. If it's the opening of a multiline comment, push -the ``'comment'`` state on the stack and continue scanning, again in the -``'comment'`` state. Else, check if it's the end of the multiline comment. If -yes, pop one state from the stack. - -Note: If you pop from an empty stack you'll get an `IndexError`. (There is an -easy way to prevent this from happening: don't ``'#pop'`` in the root state). - -If the `RegexLexer` encounters a newline that is flagged as an error token, the -stack is emptied and the lexer continues scanning in the ``'root'`` state. This -can help producing error-tolerant highlighting for erroneous input, e.g. when a -single-line string is not closed. - - -Advanced state tricks -===================== - -There are a few more things you can do with states: - -- You can push multiple states onto the stack if you give a tuple instead of a - simple string as the third item in a rule tuple. For example, if you want to - match a comment containing a directive, something like: - - .. code-block:: text - - /* <processing directive> rest of comment */ - - you can use this rule:: - - tokens = { - 'root': [ - (r'/\* <', Comment, ('comment', 'directive')), - ... - ], - 'directive': [ - (r'[^>]*', Comment.Directive), - (r'>', Comment, '#pop'), - ], - 'comment': [ - (r'[^*]+', Comment), - (r'\*/', Comment, '#pop'), - (r'\*', Comment), - ] - } - - When this encounters the above sample, first ``'comment'`` and ``'directive'`` - are pushed onto the stack, then the lexer continues in the directive state - until it finds the closing ``>``, then it continues in the comment state until - the closing ``*/``. Then, both states are popped from the stack again and - lexing continues in the root state. - - .. versionadded:: 0.9 - The tuple can contain the special ``'#push'`` and ``'#pop'`` (but not - ``'#pop:n'``) directives. - - -- You can include the rules of a state in the definition of another. This is - done by using `include` from `pygments.lexer`:: - - from pygments.lexer import RegexLexer, bygroups, include - from pygments.token import * - - class ExampleLexer(RegexLexer): - tokens = { - 'comments': [ - (r'/\*.*?\*/', Comment), - (r'//.*?\n', Comment), - ], - 'root': [ - include('comments'), - (r'(function )(\w+)( {)', - bygroups(Keyword, Name, Keyword), 'function'), - (r'.', Text), - ], - 'function': [ - (r'[^}/]+', Text), - include('comments'), - (r'/', Text), - (r'\}', Keyword, '#pop'), - ] - } - - This is a hypothetical lexer for a language that consist of functions and - comments. Because comments can occur at toplevel and in functions, we need - rules for comments in both states. As you can see, the `include` helper saves - repeating rules that occur more than once (in this example, the state - ``'comment'`` will never be entered by the lexer, as it's only there to be - included in ``'root'`` and ``'function'``). - -- Sometimes, you may want to "combine" a state from existing ones. This is - possible with the `combined` helper from `pygments.lexer`. - - If you, instead of a new state, write ``combined('state1', 'state2')`` as the - third item of a rule tuple, a new anonymous state will be formed from state1 - and state2 and if the rule matches, the lexer will enter this state. - - This is not used very often, but can be helpful in some cases, such as the - `PythonLexer`'s string literal processing. - -- If you want your lexer to start lexing in a different state you can modify the - stack by overriding the `get_tokens_unprocessed()` method:: - - from pygments.lexer import RegexLexer - - class ExampleLexer(RegexLexer): - tokens = {...} - - def get_tokens_unprocessed(self, text, stack=('root', 'otherstate')): - for item in RegexLexer.get_tokens_unprocessed(self, text, stack): - yield item - - Some lexers like the `PhpLexer` use this to make the leading ``<?php`` - preprocessor comments optional. Note that you can crash the lexer easily by - putting values into the stack that don't exist in the token map. Also - removing ``'root'`` from the stack can result in strange errors! - -- In some lexers, a state should be popped if anything is encountered that isn't - matched by a rule in the state. You could use an empty regex at the end of - the state list, but Pygments provides a more obvious way of spelling that: - ``default('#pop')`` is equivalent to ``('', Text, '#pop')``. - - .. versionadded:: 2.0 - - -Subclassing lexers derived from RegexLexer -========================================== - -.. versionadded:: 1.6 - -Sometimes multiple languages are very similar, but should still be lexed by -different lexer classes. - -When subclassing a lexer derived from RegexLexer, the ``tokens`` dictionaries -defined in the parent and child class are merged. For example:: - - from pygments.lexer import RegexLexer, inherit - from pygments.token import * - - class BaseLexer(RegexLexer): - tokens = { - 'root': [ - ('[a-z]+', Name), - (r'/\*', Comment, 'comment'), - ('"', String, 'string'), - ('\s+', Text), - ], - 'string': [ - ('[^"]+', String), - ('"', String, '#pop'), - ], - 'comment': [ - ... - ], - } - - class DerivedLexer(BaseLexer): - tokens = { - 'root': [ - ('[0-9]+', Number), - inherit, - ], - 'string': [ - (r'[^"\\]+', String), - (r'\\.', String.Escape), - ('"', String, '#pop'), - ], - } - -The `BaseLexer` defines two states, lexing names and strings. The -`DerivedLexer` defines its own tokens dictionary, which extends the definitions -of the base lexer: - -* The "root" state has an additional rule and then the special object `inherit`, - which tells Pygments to insert the token definitions of the parent class at - that point. - -* The "string" state is replaced entirely, since there is not `inherit` rule. - -* The "comment" state is inherited entirely. - - -Using multiple lexers -===================== - -Using multiple lexers for the same input can be tricky. One of the easiest -combination techniques is shown here: You can replace the action entry in a rule -tuple with a lexer class. The matched text will then be lexed with that lexer, -and the resulting tokens will be yielded. - -For example, look at this stripped-down HTML lexer:: - - from pygments.lexer import RegexLexer, bygroups, using - from pygments.token import * - from pygments.lexers.javascript import JavascriptLexer - - class HtmlLexer(RegexLexer): - name = 'HTML' - aliases = ['html'] - filenames = ['*.html', '*.htm'] - - flags = re.IGNORECASE | re.DOTALL - tokens = { - 'root': [ - ('[^<&]+', Text), - ('&.*?;', Name.Entity), - (r'<\s*script\s*', Name.Tag, ('script-content', 'tag')), - (r'<\s*[a-zA-Z0-9:]+', Name.Tag, 'tag'), - (r'<\s*/\s*[a-zA-Z0-9:]+\s*>', Name.Tag), - ], - 'script-content': [ - (r'(.+?)(<\s*/\s*script\s*>)', - bygroups(using(JavascriptLexer), Name.Tag), - '#pop'), - ] - } - -Here the content of a ``<script>`` tag is passed to a newly created instance of -a `JavascriptLexer` and not processed by the `HtmlLexer`. This is done using -the `using` helper that takes the other lexer class as its parameter. - -Note the combination of `bygroups` and `using`. This makes sure that the -content up to the ``</script>`` end tag is processed by the `JavascriptLexer`, -while the end tag is yielded as a normal token with the `Name.Tag` type. - -Also note the ``(r'<\s*script\s*', Name.Tag, ('script-content', 'tag'))`` rule. -Here, two states are pushed onto the state stack, ``'script-content'`` and -``'tag'``. That means that first ``'tag'`` is processed, which will lex -attributes and the closing ``>``, then the ``'tag'`` state is popped and the -next state on top of the stack will be ``'script-content'``. - -Since you cannot refer to the class currently being defined, use `this` -(imported from `pygments.lexer`) to refer to the current lexer class, i.e. -``using(this)``. This construct may seem unnecessary, but this is often the -most obvious way of lexing arbitrary syntax between fixed delimiters without -introducing deeply nested states. - -The `using()` helper has a special keyword argument, `state`, which works as -follows: if given, the lexer to use initially is not in the ``"root"`` state, -but in the state given by this argument. This does not work with advanced -`RegexLexer` subclasses such as `ExtendedRegexLexer` (see below). - -Any other keywords arguments passed to `using()` are added to the keyword -arguments used to create the lexer. - - -Delegating Lexer -================ - -Another approach for nested lexers is the `DelegatingLexer` which is for example -used for the template engine lexers. It takes two lexers as arguments on -initialisation: a `root_lexer` and a `language_lexer`. - -The input is processed as follows: First, the whole text is lexed with the -`language_lexer`. All tokens yielded with the special type of ``Other`` are -then concatenated and given to the `root_lexer`. The language tokens of the -`language_lexer` are then inserted into the `root_lexer`'s token stream at the -appropriate positions. :: - - from pygments.lexer import DelegatingLexer - from pygments.lexers.web import HtmlLexer, PhpLexer - - class HtmlPhpLexer(DelegatingLexer): - def __init__(self, **options): - super(HtmlPhpLexer, self).__init__(HtmlLexer, PhpLexer, **options) - -This procedure ensures that e.g. HTML with template tags in it is highlighted -correctly even if the template tags are put into HTML tags or attributes. - -If you want to change the needle token ``Other`` to something else, you can give -the lexer another token type as the third parameter:: - - DelegatingLexer.__init__(MyLexer, OtherLexer, Text, **options) - - -Callbacks -========= - -Sometimes the grammar of a language is so complex that a lexer would be unable -to process it just by using regular expressions and stacks. - -For this, the `RegexLexer` allows callbacks to be given in rule tuples, instead -of token types (`bygroups` and `using` are nothing else but preimplemented -callbacks). The callback must be a function taking two arguments: - -* the lexer itself -* the match object for the last matched rule - -The callback must then return an iterable of (or simply yield) ``(index, -tokentype, value)`` tuples, which are then just passed through by -`get_tokens_unprocessed()`. The ``index`` here is the position of the token in -the input string, ``tokentype`` is the normal token type (like `Name.Builtin`), -and ``value`` the associated part of the input string. - -You can see an example here:: - - from pygments.lexer import RegexLexer - from pygments.token import Generic - - class HypotheticLexer(RegexLexer): - - def headline_callback(lexer, match): - equal_signs = match.group(1) - text = match.group(2) - yield match.start(), Generic.Headline, equal_signs + text + equal_signs - - tokens = { - 'root': [ - (r'(=+)(.*?)(\1)', headline_callback) - ] - } - -If the regex for the `headline_callback` matches, the function is called with -the match object. Note that after the callback is done, processing continues -normally, that is, after the end of the previous match. The callback has no -possibility to influence the position. - -There are not really any simple examples for lexer callbacks, but you can see -them in action e.g. in the `SMLLexer` class in `ml.py`_. - -.. _ml.py: http://bitbucket.org/birkenfeld/pygments-main/src/tip/pygments/lexers/ml.py - - -The ExtendedRegexLexer class -============================ - -The `RegexLexer`, even with callbacks, unfortunately isn't powerful enough for -the funky syntax rules of languages such as Ruby. - -But fear not; even then you don't have to abandon the regular expression -approach: Pygments has a subclass of `RegexLexer`, the `ExtendedRegexLexer`. -All features known from RegexLexers are available here too, and the tokens are -specified in exactly the same way, *except* for one detail: - -The `get_tokens_unprocessed()` method holds its internal state data not as local -variables, but in an instance of the `pygments.lexer.LexerContext` class, and -that instance is passed to callbacks as a third argument. This means that you -can modify the lexer state in callbacks. - -The `LexerContext` class has the following members: - -* `text` -- the input text -* `pos` -- the current starting position that is used for matching regexes -* `stack` -- a list containing the state stack -* `end` -- the maximum position to which regexes are matched, this defaults to - the length of `text` - -Additionally, the `get_tokens_unprocessed()` method can be given a -`LexerContext` instead of a string and will then process this context instead of -creating a new one for the string argument. - -Note that because you can set the current position to anything in the callback, -it won't be automatically be set by the caller after the callback is finished. -For example, this is how the hypothetical lexer above would be written with the -`ExtendedRegexLexer`:: - - from pygments.lexer import ExtendedRegexLexer - from pygments.token import Generic - - class ExHypotheticLexer(ExtendedRegexLexer): - - def headline_callback(lexer, match, ctx): - equal_signs = match.group(1) - text = match.group(2) - yield match.start(), Generic.Headline, equal_signs + text + equal_signs - ctx.pos = match.end() - - tokens = { - 'root': [ - (r'(=+)(.*?)(\1)', headline_callback) - ] - } - -This might sound confusing (and it can really be). But it is needed, and for an -example look at the Ruby lexer in `ruby.py`_. - -.. _ruby.py: https://bitbucket.org/birkenfeld/pygments-main/src/tip/pygments/lexers/ruby.py - - -Handling Lists of Keywords -========================== - -For a relatively short list (hundreds) you can construct an optimized regular -expression directly using ``words()`` (longer lists, see next section). This -function handles a few things for you automatically, including escaping -metacharacters and Python's first-match rather than longest-match in -alternations. Feel free to put the lists themselves in -``pygments/lexers/_$lang_builtins.py`` (see examples there), and generated by -code if possible. - -An example of using ``words()`` is something like:: - - from pygments.lexer import RegexLexer, words, Name - - class MyLexer(RegexLexer): - - tokens = { - 'root': [ - (words(('else', 'elseif'), suffix=r'\b'), Name.Builtin), - (r'\w+', Name), - ], - } - -As you can see, you can add ``prefix`` and ``suffix`` parts to the constructed -regex. - - -Modifying Token Streams -======================= - -Some languages ship a lot of builtin functions (for example PHP). The total -amount of those functions differs from system to system because not everybody -has every extension installed. In the case of PHP there are over 3000 builtin -functions. That's an incredibly huge amount of functions, much more than you -want to put into a regular expression. - -But because only `Name` tokens can be function names this is solvable by -overriding the ``get_tokens_unprocessed()`` method. The following lexer -subclasses the `PythonLexer` so that it highlights some additional names as -pseudo keywords:: - - from pygments.lexers.python import PythonLexer - from pygments.token import Name, Keyword - - class MyPythonLexer(PythonLexer): - EXTRA_KEYWORDS = set(('foo', 'bar', 'foobar', 'barfoo', 'spam', 'eggs')) - - def get_tokens_unprocessed(self, text): - for index, token, value in PythonLexer.get_tokens_unprocessed(self, text): - if token is Name and value in self.EXTRA_KEYWORDS: - yield index, Keyword.Pseudo, value - else: - yield index, token, value - -The `PhpLexer` and `LuaLexer` use this method to resolve builtin functions. |