Highlightjs not respecting parent regex of a sub mode

[algomaster99]

I need to write a lexer which highlights my command-line tool commands properly.

$ dvc add file.csv
$ dvc pipeline list

So the command starts with dvc and it may have one or two subcommands - add or pipeline list respectively.

Therefore, it should highlight dvc add and dvc pipeline list in first and second case respectively.

contains: [
  {
    begin: /^\s*\$\s(dvc|git) [a-z-]+/,
    returnBegin: true,
    contains: [
      {
        begin: /dvc [a-z-]+ ?/,
        lexemes: '[a-z-]+',
        keywords: {
          built_in:
             'dvc'
          },
          contains: [
            {
              begin: /\w+(?![\S])/,
              keywords: {
                built_in: 'list'
              }
            }
          ],
          className: 'strong'
        }
      ]
    }
 ]

It matches $ dvc pipeline list even though the parent regex i.e. /^\s*\$\s(dvc|git) [a-z-]+/ and should only match till $ dvc pipeline. How is it exactly functioning?

How does /dvc [a-z-]+ ?/ override it and continues matching the expression?

[joshgoebel]

Please provide output HTML so it’s 100% clear what is happening. I find your description not that clear.

[joshgoebel]

Looks like your second begin matches dvc pipeline then your third grabs list.

[joshgoebel]

It’s all strong because your 3rd matches is a child of the 2nd.

[algomaster99]

@yyyc514 but the parent regex - /^\s*\$\s(dvc|git) [a-z-]+/ is not being respected if dvc pipeline list matches. How is this working exactly?

[joshgoebel]

I don’t think you understand how it works. The first regex matches then it switches to the contains and starts looking for children then matches list

[joshgoebel]

The first regex only tells it to begin. It can keep matching if there are children to match.

[joshgoebel]

The parents BEGIN regex has nothing to do with children, it just starts the mode. Well unless you use begin same as end. Lol. Then it COULD potentially

[algomaster99]

@yyyc514 so how should I change my configuration to enable that? Basically, I would want to match dvc pipeline list but not pics in dvc add pics since 'pics' is not in built_in.
The current scenario makes both of them strong. Should I hardcode regex like this - (?:list|...)? (... Refers to list of all keywords I want to match)
Currently, both of the above commands become bold. And since, dvc, pipeline and list both are in built_in, they are colored blue too. pics doesn't get blue colored but it does get bold.

[joshgoebel]

Well depends how picky you want to be... You could probably get a long ways with just a single mode:

$ (git|dvc) * - then just FULL list of keywords

And then matching a long list of keywords... it wouldn't be "smart" but it might work for 95% of things...

Or you could go all the way the other way and have a single mode per subcommand:

begin: "dvc add" (no keywords?)
begin: "dvc something ..." (custom keywords for the ...)
begin: "dvs pipeline ..." (custom keywords for the ...)
...

[algomaster99]

@yyyc514 we were trying the second way only. But we don't know how to distinguish between $ dvc pipeline <keyword> and $ dvc add <not-a-keyword>.

[joshgoebel]

Well, that might be impossible in some circumstances. But if you had a separate mode for each then you know how many keyword to expect, right?

Do for "dvc add" you'd be done... everything else should be arguments, no? What are the keywords for add?

You only need to worry about matching keywords, not non-keywords.

[algomaster99]

@yyyc514 dvc add doesn't have any. But "dvc pipeline" has one sub command called 'list'. So basically it can at most two sub-commands after 'dvc'

[joshgoebel]

Right... but again if you're doing "per subcommand" then it's be a tree... Or you might do better just hard coding them all:

(dvc add|dvc pipeline submit|dvc pipeline list|dvc ...)

Or any combination. There are only like 20 ways to do the same thing here. :)

[algomaster99]

@yyyc514 Yes, I want to do it "per subcommand". I just don't know how can I differentiate between pics in $ dvc add pics and list in $ div pipeline list. (pics is just a name of the directory.)