How to make vim SpellCheck *not* code aware?

Question

By default, vim spell checker is code aware, so it doesn't spell-check code parts of the file. In effect, in markdown it considers (pandoc multiline) tables to be codes and thus doesn't spell-check their contents.

Is it possible to override this? Or enable spell-check for the entire file including code.

Answer 1

As far as I'm able to determine, there is no way to tell Vim to ignore the spellcheck suggestions in the syntax file and to just "check everything".

A fairly heavy-handed workaround is to disable syntax entirely with :syn off; you can re-enable this with :syn on.

Specifically for Markdown, you can disable highlighting of code blocks with :syn clear markdownCodeBlock; you can reset this with :syn on as well.

Answer 2

Use syntax spell

:syntax spell toplevel

See: http://usevim.com/2013/05/10/synspell/

Answer 3

I created bash script fixing syntax files. IT IS NOT PERFECT BUT IT IS GOOD. It can be reversed by running it again. It adds contains=@Spell to syn match and syn region definitions in all files in given directory.

To use it:

1. Save the script as fix_syntax_files.sh
2. Give it permissions
3. Change path at the bottom of the script to one corresponding to your vim plugins location
4. Run the script
5. (OPTIONAL) Run script again to revert the changes

The script makes backup of all files before modification so you can assume it is safe to run it. I anyway do not take any responsibility for potential problems caused by the script.

Edit: You can leave feedback to the script in the following repository: https://github.com/dominikduda/config_files/blob/master/bin/fix_vim_syntax_files.sh

#!/bin/bash

function fix_file {
  sed -i -e '/exe/! {s/contains=/contains=@Spell,/g}' $1
  sed -i -e 's/contains=@Spell,ALL/contains=ALL/g' $1
  sed -i -e 's/contains=@Spell,ALLBUT/contains=ALLBUT/g' $1
  sed -i -e 's/contains=@Spell,TOP/contains=TOP/g' $1
  sed -i -e 's/contains=@Spell,CONTAINED/contains=CONTAINED/g' $1
  sed -i -e 's/contains=@Spell,NONE/contains=@Spell/g' $1
  sed -i -e '/^ *syn match/ {/contains=/! s/$/ contains=@Spell/g}' $1
  sed -i -e '/^ *syn region/ {/contains=/! s/$/ contains=@Spell/g}' $1
  return 0
}

function revert_file {
  mv "$1/$2.spellfix-backup" "$1/$2"
  return 0
}

function fix_recursively_in_catalog {
  syntax_catalogs_paths="$(find $1 -type d ! -name '*.*' -not -path '*git*' -print)"
  syntax_catalogs_count="$(echo "${syntax_catalogs_paths}" | wc -l)"

  echo "${syntax_catalogs_count} syntax catalogs found and will be scanned for files"

  echo "${syntax_catalogs_paths}" | while read -r catalog_path ; do
      echo "    Scanning $catalog_path"
      ls -p "${catalog_path}" | grep -v / | grep -v .spellfix-backup | grep .vim | while read -r file_name ; do
          cp "${catalog_path}/${file_name}" "${catalog_path}/${file_name}.spellfix-backup"
          fix_file "${catalog_path}/${file_name}"
          echo "        Fixing ${file_name} (backup created as ${file_name}.spellfix-backup)"
      done
  done
  echo 'Fix done.'
  echo 'Remember to REVERT FIX before updating vim plugins'
  return 0
}

function revert_recursively_in_catalog {
  syntax_catalogs_paths="$(find $1 -type d ! -name '*.*' -not -path '*git*' -print)"
  syntax_catalogs_count="$(echo "${syntax_catalogs_paths}" | wc -l)"

  echo "${syntax_catalogs_count} syntax catalogs found and will be scanned for spellfix-backup files"

  echo "${syntax_catalogs_paths}" | while read -r catalog_path ; do
      echo "    Scanning $catalog_path"
      ls -p "${catalog_path}" | grep -v / | grep -v .spellfix-backup | grep .vim | while read -r file_name ; do
          revert_file "${catalog_path}" "${file_name}"
          echo "        Reverting ${file_name} (from file ${file_name}.spellfix-backup)"
      done
  done
  echo 'Revert done.'
  echo 'Remember to FIX AGAIN after plugins update (or set it as a post update hook)'
  return 0
}

function main {
  syntax_catalogs_paths="$(find $1 -type d ! -name '*.*' -not -path '*git*' -print)"
  while read -r catalog_path ; do
      if ls -p "${catalog_path}" | grep -v / | grep .spellfix-backup; then
        echo ".spellfix-backup files found, reverting fix!"
        echo "--------------------------------------------"
        revert_recursively_in_catalog $1
        return 0
      fi
  done < <(echo "${syntax_catalogs_paths}")
  echo ".spellfix-backup files NOT found, fixing!"
  echo "-----------------------------------------"
  fix_recursively_in_catalog $1
}

main ~/PATH/TO/VIM/PLUGINS/

Answer 4

In that case I would contact the maintainer of the markdown syntax file and ask him/she if (s)he could fix this issue.