Xshell Highlight Sets

Group related terms (like HTTP status codes) under uniform color schemes. How to Create and Apply a Highlight Set

Over time, highlight sets have evolved from a personal tweak to a cultural artifact of modern operations. They are bookmarks in a stream of consciousness, small rituals that speed up collective problem-solving. They reveal what individuals value: whether it’s uptime, security, developer feedback, or the satisfaction of a neat, color-coordinated terminal.

Highlight Sets allow you to automatically emphasize specific text in your terminal using colors or font styles. This is particularly useful for tracking errors, status codes, or specific keywords across active sessions. Key Features Keyword Tracking

Warnings, deprecation notices, and high disk/CPU usage alerts.

: Ensure the highlight set is actually selected for the active session window ( View > Highlight Set ). xshell highlight sets

Xshell allows users to create multiple sets (e.g., one for Python development, one for network troubleshooting) and switch between them instantly.

Highlight Sets are persistent but must be assigned to each session. If highlighting stops after restart, ensure your Highlight Set is properly applied in the session properties rather than just the current view. This ensures the setting persists across reconnections.

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Xshell allows you to export your highlight configurations. This is incredibly useful for maintaining visual consistency across your engineering team or migrating to a new workstation. Group related terms (like HTTP status codes) under

: Navigate to the [Tools] menu and select [Terminal Highlight Sets] .

Store your .hls and .xcs files in version control (Git, for example). This allows you to track changes over time, revert problematic updates, and share configurations across teams.

Successful deployments, active services, and clean health checks.

Xshell provides several ways to make highlighted text stand out. In the Keyword dialog box, you can configure: They reveal what individuals value: whether it’s uptime,

: Match your visual indicators to specific application frameworks, programming languages, or deployment environments. How to Create and Manage Highlight Sets in Xshell

[Keyword_3] Keyword=(\b((bad|wrong|incorrect|improper|invalid|unsupported|bad)( file| memory)? (descriptor|alloc(ation)?|addr(ess)?|owner(ship)?|arg(ument)?|param(eter)?|setting|length|filename)|not properly|improperly|(operation |connection |authentication |access |permission )?(false|no|ko|denied|disallowed|not allowed|refused|problem|failed|failure|not permitted)|no [A-Za-z]+( [A-Za-z]+)? found|invalid|unsupported|not supported|seg(mentation )?fault|corruption|corrupted|corrupt|overflow|underrun|not ok|unimplemented|unsuccessfull|not implemented|permerrors?|fehlers?|errore|errors?|erreurs?|fejl|virhe|greška|erro|fel|(ee)|(ni))\b) CaseSens=0 Enable=1 Bold=0 Italic=0 Underline=0 Strikeout=0 UseRegex=1 TextColorIndex=286 BackColorIndex=9

Open the options menu ( Tools > Options > Highlighting ). Click the New... button on the right side of the panel.