VSCode Czo Template Extension

Inserts file header templates and keeps them up to date on every save.

Example for a C file:

/*
 * Filename: README.md
 * Author: Olivier Sirol <czo@free.fr>
 * License: GPL-2.0 (http://www.gnu.org/copyleft)
 * File Created: 07 March 2026
 * Last Modified: Sunday 22 March 2026, 21:38
 * Edit Time: 5:05:06
 * Description:
 *
 * Copyright: (C) 2026 Olivier Sirol <czo@free.fr>
 */

Filename:, Author:, License:, File Created:, Last Modified:, Edit Time: and Copyright: fields are updated on every save.

Features

Command Palette

Command	Description
`Czo Template: Enable`	Enable the extension
`Czo Template: Disable`	Disable the extension
`Czo Template: Insert Header`	Insert a language-appropriate header at the top of the file
`Czo Template: Update`	Apply header updates immediately without saving

Keyboard Shortcuts

Shortcut	Command
`Ctrl+Alt+H Ctrl+Alt+H`	Insert Header
`Ctrl+Alt+H Ctrl+Alt+U`	Update

Configuration

All settings can be configured at user level (settings.json) or overridden per project in a workspace (<project>/.vscode/settings.json).

{
    "czoTemplate.enabled": true,
    "czoTemplate.maxHeaderLines": 50,
    "czoTemplate.author": "Olivier Sirol <czo@free.fr>",
    "czoTemplate.license": "GPL-2.0 (http://www.gnu.org/copyleft)",
    "czoTemplate.shortdate": "%d %B %Y",
    "czoTemplate.longdate": "%A %d %B %Y, %H:%M"
}

Insert Header

Czo Template: Insert Header inserts a language-appropriate header at the top of the current file, then immediately applies all field updates.

Supported languages:

c
cpp
crontab
css
h
hpp
html
java
javascript
json
lua
makefile
markdown
perl
php
python
shellscript
typescript
and any other language you define in custom templates using the VS Code languageId.

Update

Czo Template: Update updates the header fields. Same as auto-update on save, but without saving the file.

Auto-update on save

Every time you save a file, any of the following fields found in the first czoTemplate.maxHeaderLines lines are updated automatically:

Field	Action
`Filename:`	Updates to current filename
`FullFilename:`	Updates to current full path
`Author:`	Updates from `czoTemplate.author`
`License:`	Updates from `czoTemplate.license`
`File Created:`	Set once using strftime format `czoTemplate.shortdate` (only if no year is present)
`Last Modified:`	Updates using strftime format `czoTemplate.longdate`
`Edit Time:`	Accumulates editing time since the file was opened
`Copyright:`	Updates to `(C) [year range] czoTemplate.author`

Changes from all previous versions

These fields are automatically renamed for compatibility with my older file headers:

Old field	Renamed to
`Started:`	`File Created:`
`Created:`	`File Created:`
`Last Change:`	`Last Modified:`

Custom regexp substitutions on save

You can define your own regexp substitutions on every save or update via czoTemplate.regexps. These substitutions are applied to the entire document.

Each entry has:

Field	Description
`find`	JavaScript regexp string
`replace`	Replacement — supports `$1`, `$2`, ... capture groups and macro tokens
`mode`	Optional regexp flags: `i` (case-insensitive), `g` (global)

Note: m and s flags have no effect as regexps are applied line by line.

"czoTemplate.regexps": [
        {
            // substitute CVS $Id: because I'm now using Git and I need an
            // identifier ($Id) from my old CVS scripts...
            "find": "(\\$Id\\:).*( czo Git \\$)",
            "replace": "$1 <<FILENAME>>,v 1.42 <<STRFTIME=\"%Y/%m/%d %T\">>$2"
        },
        {
            // substitute ( Czo\Date: ) by ( Czo\Date: 2024-03-14 14:36 )
            "find": "(\\( Czo\\Date:)\\s*[\\d :+-]*\\s*\\)",
            "replace": "$1 <<STRFTIME=\"%F %R\">> )"
        },
  ]

Tip: To avoid a pattern matching itself in settings.json on save, break the literal string with an escaped character, e.g. "\\$Id\\:" matches $Id: in files but the string \\$Id\\: in settings.json does not match itself.

Macro tokens in `replace`

The following tokens are substituted in the replace string before applying the regexp:

Token	Value
`<<STRFTIME="%fmt">>`	Date/time formatted with strftime (e.g. `<<STRFTIME="%Y/%m/%d %T">>`)
`<<FILENAME>>`	Current filename (basename only, e.g. `foo.c`)
`<<FULLFILENAME>>`	Full path of the current file
`<<HOME>>`	Home directory (`$HOME` or `%USERPROFILE%`)
`<<USER>>`	Current user (`$USER` or `%USERNAME%`)
`<<HOSTNAME>>`	Hostname (`$HOSTNAME`)

Custom templates

Any built-in template can be overridden in settings.json using czoTemplate.templates. The key is the template name (c, cpp, h, hpp, sh, py, ...) and the value is an array of strings, one per line.

Example — override the C and shell templates:

"czoTemplate.templates": {
    "c": [
        "/*",
        " * Filename:",
        " * Author:",
        " * License:",
        " * File Created:",
        " * Last Modified:",
        " * Edit Time:",
        " * Description:",
        " *",
        " * Copyright:",
        " */"
    ],
    "sh": [
        "#! /usr/bin/env bash",
        "#",
        "# Filename:",
        "# Author:",
        "# License:",
        "# File Created:",
        "# Last Modified:",
        "# Edit Time:",
        "# Description:",
        "#",
        "# Copyright:"
    ]
}

Template resolution order:

User override - czoTemplate.templates.languageId in settings.json, for unlisted languageId too
User override - czoTemplate.templates.fileExt in settings.json
Built-in - <extensionPath>/out/templates/template.fileExt

License

This extension is released under the GPL-2.0 License.

This is a port of template.vim by Olivier Sirol (czo@free.fr), you can see it in my .vimrc.

Czo Template

czo64