Markdown code block highlight consistency - what is "s" alias

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The built-in markdown editor has a "live-preview" for code blocks without open a side previewer.
I was looking for a list of supported language highlight, which as I understand is defined by highlight.js supported language.

I need to add some "ssh config files" in my markdown, but

  1. when I use properties language tag, only side previewer shows the highlight, not the editor itself
  2. when I try with a weird "s" language alias, the editor can detect the comments and non-alphabetic characters. But the side previewer shows nothing...

VSCode screenshot:

My questions:

  1. "s" is not defined as an alias in highlight.js, then how come the editor can detect the language?
  2. Why the editor and previewer do not have the same highlight behavior?
  3. I prefer to have the correct highlight in editor, which language/alias should I use in place of "properties"?
highlight.js visual-studio-code syntax-highlighting markdown
2 Answers

I don't believe VSCode's native syntax highlighting has anything to do with highlight.js. It is provided by language-specific extensions, some of which ship with the editor.

In this case, VSCode is using its built-in R mode for that code block. You can see the language being used via Developer: Inspect Editor Tokens and Scopes in the command palette. R is an open-source implementation of the language S, so this makes sense.

The Markdown preview, on the other hand, may well use highlight.js and you are right that s is meaningless there.

I don't see a good language code to use in your code fence, but will update this answer if I find one.

user_3545770

Summarizing previous comments and answers here:

  • VScode markdown "in-editor" code highlight use "markdown-basic" extension, with a list of supported languages in this file
  • The "alias" for different languages are "hidden" in the regex of each block definition. for example for R language the alias is R|r|s|S|Rprofile|\\{\\.r.+?\\}. (I extract a complete list of aliases from the source codes and it is shown below)
  • More specifically for what I want, i.e. key-value pair config file equivalent to properties in highlight.js, there is no exact the same in "markdown-basic", so I will use conf.
  • Developer: Inspect Editor Tokens and Scopes helps a lot when you see a unfamiliar alias and want to know what it is

List of code block languages aliases for "markdown-basic":

bat|batch 
bibtex 
c|h 
clj|cljs|clojure 
coffee|Cakefile|coffee.erb 
COMMIT_EDITMSG|MERGE_MSG 
cpp|c\\+\\+|cxx 
cs|csharp|c# 
css|css.erb 
dart 
dockerfile|Dockerfile 
elixir 
erlang 
fs|fsharp|f# 
git-rebase-todo 
go|golang 
groovy|gvy 
handlebars|hbs 
html|htm|shtml|xhtml|inc|tmpl|tpl 
ini|conf 
jade|pug 
java|bsh 
js|jsx|javascript|es6|mjs|cjs|\\{\\.js.+?\\} 
json|json5|sublime-settings|sublime-menu|sublime-keymap|sublime-mousemap|sublime-theme|sublime-build|sublime-project|sublime-completions 
jsonc 
latex|tex 
less 
log 
lua 
Makefile|makefile|GNUmakefile|OCamlMakefile 
markdown|md 
objectivec|objective-c|mm|objc|obj-c|m|h 
patch|diff|rej 
perl|pl|pm|pod|t|PL|psgi|vcl 
perl6|p6|pl6|pm6|nqp 
php|php3|php4|php5|phpt|phtml|aw|ctp 
powershell|ps1|psm1|psd1 
python|py|py3|rpy|pyw|cpy|SConstruct|Sconstruct|sconstruct|SConscript|gyp|gypi|\\{\\.python.+?\\} 
R|r|s|S|Rprofile|\\{\\.r.+?\\} 
re 
regexp 
ruby|rb|rbx|rjs|Rakefile|rake|cgi|fcgi|gemspec|irbrc|Capfile|ru|prawn|Cheffile|Gemfile|Guardfile|Hobofile|Vagrantfile|Appraisals|Rantfile|Berksfile|Berksfile.lock|Thorfile|Puppetfile 
rust|rs|\\{\\.rust.+?\\} 
scala|sbt 
scss 
shell|sh|bash|zsh|bashrc|bash_profile|bash_login|profile|bash_logout|.textmate_init|\\{\\.bash.+?\\} 
sql|ddl|dml 
swift 
tsx 
typescript|ts 
vb 
xml|xsd|tld|jsp|pt|cpt|dtml|rss|opml 
xsl|xslt 
yaml|yml
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