CudaText files formats

Format of auto-completion acp file

Common auto-completion file format is ANSI text file, it contains list of lines in forms:

Type Id |Hint
Type Id (Param1; Param2; ...) |Hint
Type Id (Param1; Param2; ...): ResultType |Hint

• Strings "Type", "Id", "Params", "Hint" are shown in separate columns of completion listbox, with separate colors. "Id" is the text which is inserted for a line.
• Both ";" and "," chars can be params delimiters. "|Hint" part is optional.
• If "\" char is present in hint part, then it must be escaped: "\\".
• If space is needed in id part, it must be written as "%20" (it's allowed for any char in range 0x20..0x2F).

First line in the file can be the "control" line: it specifies what chars are "word chars" for the used syntax. For example, if word chars are minus, dot, and # sign, the control line should be:

#chars .-#

Format of install.inf files

User can open addons in zip files (using "File-Open") and install them. To make such zip file, pack into zip also "install.inf" with meta-info.

• "title" field (required)
• "desc" field, long text for install prompt dialog
• "type" field (required) must be one of:
  • cudatext-plugin: to install plugin to subdir of "py" dir
  • cudatext-data: to copy any files into subdir of "data" dir
  • lexer: to install lexers (zip must be made by SynWrite's ExLexer addon)
  • lexer-lite: to install lite lexer
• "subdir" field (required)
  • for plugins it should begin with prefix "cuda_"
  • for lexers it should be "-"
• "homepage" field, source code repository URL (usually on GitHub)
• "api" field, optional, minimal required API version (3 numbers dot-separated)
• "os" field, optional, comma-separated list of supported platforms, described below

Install.inf supported "os" values

Value of "os" field is comma-separated list of platforms (no spaces around commas). Each platform is supported OS name, with optional trailing "-" and CPU family name.

OS names are:

• win
• linux
• macos
• freebsd
• openbsd
• netbsd
• dragonfly
• solaris
• haiku

CPU families are:

• i386
• x86_64
• arm
• aarch64
• sparc
• ppc
• ppc64
• mips

So for example Windows x86 platform values are "win" and "win-i386", Linux AMD64 platform values are "linux" and "linux-x86_64".

Install.inf for plugins

Example of install.inf for plugin (plugin adds 2 menu items with menu separator between):

[info]
title=MyName
desc=Plugin allows smth
type=cudatext-plugin
subdir=cuda_test
homepage=http://github.com/some/name/
api=1.0.200

[item1]
section=commands
caption=MyPlugin\Cmd one
method=run
lexers=CSS,HTML
hotkey=Alt+F

[item2]
section=commands
caption=MyPlugin\-
method=nnnn

[item3]
section=commands
caption=MyPlugin\Cmd other
method=run_more
menu=0

Section names: "item" followed by any string (e.g. "item1"). Fields in sections:

• "section": possible values are "commands", "events".
• "caption": caption of menu item in Plugins menu. "\" separates menu levels. "&" makes accelerator hotkey. "-" as final level name, makes separator menu item.
• "method": Python method name in Command class.
• "lexers": comma-separated lexer names, means that command can be run only when such lexer(s) active.
• "hotkey": value must be simple hotkey string (e.g. "Alt+F", "Ctrl+Shift+F1") or key combo separated by "|" (e.g. "Alt+F|F|G").
  • If "lexers=" param missed, then hotkey saves to file "keys.json" for all lexers.
  • If "lexers=" param present, then hotkey saves to "keys lexer NNNN.json" for each mentioned lexer.
• "menu": optional. Possible values:
  • "" (empty, default): menu item will be put to "Plugins".
  • "0": hide menu item.
  • "o": menu item will be put to "Options / Settings-plugins".
  • "op": menu item will be put both to "Plugins" and "Options / Settings-plugins".

Only for "section=events":

• "events": comma-separated list of events to handle in plugin, e.g. "events=on_change,on_caret".
• "keys": supported only for several events:
  • for "on_key": comma-separated list of int key codes to handle in event, e.g. "keys=9" means that event is only called for key code 9 (Tab char).
  • for "on_open" / "on_open_pre": comma-separated list of lower-case file extensions, without leading dot, to handle in event.

Install.inf sidebar buttons

CudaText can show plugin's sidebar buttons even without running the plugin in "on_start" event. Plugin should add sections "sidebar*" ("*" means any substring), with the keys:

• "hint": Tooltip of button, must be the same as used by plugin to create its button.
• "icon": Filename of PNG icon. If path is missed, CudaText uses file from its "data" folder. To specify filename in plugin folder, write value as "{dir}/subdir/filename.png" - with macro {dir}, with forward slashes.
• "method": Python method name to show plugin panel. This command should create side panel for this button.

Plugin should add sections "bottombar*" ("*" means any substring) to perform the same, but for the bottom part of sidebar, where buttons "Console" and "Output" are placed.

Install.inf lexer lists

If plugin has many [itemN] sections, it is possible to set list of lexers using variable (not to write each time "lexers=name,name2,name3"). Declare list of lexers in [info] section like this, any variable name:

[info]
$var=Name1,Name2,Name3

In [itemN] sections set lexers like this:

[itemN]
lexers=$var

You can set lexers by reg-ex, e.g. reg-ex ".SQL." means all names with substring "SQL". To do it, write variable with prefix:

[info]
$var=regex:.*SQL.*

Install.inf for data files

Example of install.inf for data files, to be copied into subdir of "data" dir. Name of subdir can be any, for example "themes".

[info]
title=NiceDarkTheme
desc=Nice Dark theme (by AuthorName)
type=cudatext-data
subdir=themes

Install.inf for lexers

To see example of install.inf for lexers, download any lexer. To see complex example, download lexer zip for "HTML Smarty" which has 2 lexers inside, one lexer is linked to another.

[info]
title=HTML Smarty
type=lexer
subdir=-

[lexer1]
file=HTML Smarty internal
[lexer2]
file=HTML Smarty
link1=CSS
link2=VBScript
link3=JavaScript
link4=JavaScript
link5=VBScript
link6=PHP
link7=PHP
link8=HTML Smarty internal

Install.inf for lite lexers

Example of install.inf for lite lexer. Note that "^" suffix not needed here.

[info]
title=MyLexer
type=lexer-lite
subdir=-

Format of .cuda-lexops files

Files keep lexer styles, which user changed in the "Lexer Properties" dialog. JSON format.

Root keys:

• "files": str: space-separated list of file masks for lexer. Each mask can be "nnn" for extension .nnn, or "/mmm" for full filename mmm.
• "style_NN" for each lexer style name "NN", which user have changed. Subkeys are:
  • "font_color": str: color of font, in Pascal format.
  • "font_style": str: several chars: "i" for italic, "b" for bold, "s" for strikeout.
  • "back": str: color of background, in Pascal format.
  • "brd_c_l", "brd_c_r", "brd_c_t", "brd_c_b": str: color of border (left, right, top, bottom), in Pascal format.
  • "brd_t_l", "brd_t_r", "brd_t_t", "brd_t_b": int: type of border (left, right, top, bottom). Values 0..9: None, Solid, Dash, Dot, DashDot, DashDotDot, Solid2, Solid3, WavyLine, Double.

Color in Pascal format: hex number (6..8 digits) with "$" prefix, or constants. See possible constants (with hex values) in Lazarus file Graphics.pp, where string 'clBlack' is defined. https://gitlab.com/freepascal.org/lazarus/lazarus/-/blob/main/lcl/graphics.pp

From the Free Pascal wiki, page "CudaText files formats", as it stood on 2022-08-16 after a change by Alextp, out of the wiki's dump of 2024-05-26. Copyright stays with the author who wrote it, according to the old wiki's Licensing page. If you have concerns about this material, message the admin.