Embedding reStructuredText in Python docstrings

Question

I'd like to see some nice syntax highlighting and colouring in my Python's docstrings which (of course) are valid RESt. For example:

'''
A section
=========

an example::

    some code
'''
rest of python code

The closest I've got is this in my .vim/after/syntax/python.vim :

syn include syntax/rst.vim 
syn region pythonDocstring  start=+^\s*'''+ end=+'''+ contained

According to the documentation of syntax-include that should be sufficient to. Also note that rst.vim re-defines a bunch of python entities so I've had to comment out all sections related to code:

" syn region rstCodeBlock contained matchgroup=rstDirective
"       \ start=+\%(sourcecode\|code\%(-block\)\=\)::\_s*\n\ze\z(\s\+\)+
"       \ skip=+^$+
"       \ end=+^\z1\@!+
"       \ contains=@NoSpell
" syn cluster rstDirectives add=rstCodeBlock

" if !exists('g:rst_syntax_code_list')
[...]

Lastly, I can't use !runtime because rst.vim does nothing if the b:current_syntax variable is already defined:

if exists("b:current_syntax")
  finish
endif

Despite my efforts my docstring stays the same colour as other comments, with no syntax highlighting.

I've tried also this:

syn region pythonDocstring  start=+^\s*'''+ end=+'''+ contains=CONTAINED

But I only managed to change the colour of the block to be Special rather than Comment .

Perhaps I should define the pythonDocstring not to have any default colouring?

Further note: if I remove references to python raw strings in python.vim, colouring disappears but I only get the python keywords highlighted.

---

Update

Trying one of the solutions below with my after/syntax/python.vim file:

syn include @pythonRst syntax/rst.vim 
syn region pythonDocstring  start=+^\s*'''+ end=+'''+ contains=@pythonRst

Resulted in the RESt file being grayed out when opening a file with .py extension:

While opening the same file with a .rst . extension seems to work fine (just to show that I have a rest syntax file):

Note that I've tried both with and without colorscheme in my .vimrc

Answer 1

As the reST syntax should only be applied inside Python doc strings, you have to include them into a syntax cluster (here: @pythonRst ). Otherwise, Vim would try to match them everywhere.

syn include @pythonRst syntax/rst.vim

Then, define a region covering those doc strings, and explicitly instruct Vim to highlight reST syntax in there (via contains= )

syn region pythonDocstring  start=+^\s*'''+ end=+'''+ contains=@pythonRst

Answer 2

I've finally managed to crack it.

Firstly I copied the rst.vim file from $VIMRUNTIME/syntax into my .vim/syntax/ folder

Secondly, this is my .vim/after/syntax/python.vim file (thanks @Ingo):

syn include @pythonRst syntax/rst.vim 
syn region pythonDocstring  start=+^\s*"""+ end=+"""+ contains=@pythonRst

Thirdly I edited the file and commented out this block to ignore whether current syntax is set:

if exists("b:current_syntax")
  finish
endif

This block to load code plugins (it was causing some recursive problem because it was trying to load a python syntax file, which loaded this syntax file:

for code in g:rst_syntax_code_list
    unlet! b:current_syntax
[...]
   unlet! prior_isk
endfor

And finally this block at the end:

let b:current_syntax = "rst"

So that the syntax would stay as python.

Result: