Apache Configuration Language Module for BBEdit 8

Monday, 30 August 2004

BBEdit 8 is out, and one of its major new features is support for codeless language modules. (Previously, BBEdit language modules needed to be compiled plug-ins written in C/C++.)

I’ve created a codeless language module for Apache configuration files (2 KB). It provides syntax coloring for comments and Apache server directive keywords; by default, it claims any file whose name ends with ‘.conf’ or ‘.htaccess’ (or whose name is ‘.htaccess’).

Download it, unzip it, and copy “Apache Configuration.plist” to:

~/Library/Application Support/BBEdit/Language Modules/

Then relaunch BBEdit. Configure via the Languages panel in BBEdit’s preferences.

Creating codeless language modules is a cinch — each module is an XML property list file. Appendix D in the BBEdit 8 user manual has complete details on their syntax and format.

Update 1: I was a beta-tester for BBEdit 8; I put this together a few weeks ago, not in the hour since BBEdit 8 was publicly released.

Update 2: Added RewriteBase to the list of keywords; thanks to Dan Carlson. If anyone else spots missing keywords, let me know.

Update 3 (Wednesday, 1 Sep 2004):

• The module now has a permanent home in my Projects section. That page will always host the most recent revision.

• Added over 100 missing keywords. The keyword list is now a superset of all server directives for Apache versions 1.3 and 2.0. Thanks to everyone who sent me missing directives, but especially to Gregory Ramsperger, who pointed me to the comprehensive list of server directives at apache.org, which I inexplicably had overlooked.

• Added a wildcard to the ‘.htaccess’ filename suffix. This way, if you open several files named “.htaccess” via Interarchy (or another S/FTP client that supports the Edit With BBEdit protocol), the module claims the files even though in BBEdit they appear with names like “.htaccess#1”.