Red highlight in vi?

[PTO1]

Ok I am modifying a file and when I was changing some of the settings I inadvertently did something to highlight some of the text. Actually the highlight is not red, more of an orange/maroon color. Here is an example of what I am seeing; this is from /etc/sysconfig/network

NETWORKING=yes
HOSTNAME=blah123

HOSTNAME is the portion highlighted. This is not causing any problems but I want to know what I did and how to undo it.

thanks

 

[blainepruitt]

Sounds like you or someone else did a search for the string HOSTNAME while in vi (or vim). I would just vi the file and do a search for a string that doesn't exist, like

/foo

Chances are the HOSTNAME text will become unhighlighted since it won't match any text.

If this doesn't work please post back.

HTH
-bp

 

[PTO1]

Thanks Blainepruitt your solution worked.

D.

 

[chipperMDW]

That solution works until you have a file that has "food" or "snafoo" in it, and then you have the annoying highlighting back.


For the preferred solution, use [tt]:nohlsearch[/tt] (or just [tt]:noh[/tt]). That turns off highlighting until you search again.

To permenently turn search hightlighting off, use [tt]:set hlsearch=off[/tt]. That goes in your [tt]~/.vimrc[/tt] (without the starting colon) unless you feel like typing it every time you start vi.


(Note: I'm assuming that when you say "vi," you really mean "vim." If you're really using vi, some things like the config file name will probably be different for you.)