contrib/css/216dark.css        | 20 ++++++++++++++++++++
 lib/PublicInbox/UserContent.pm | 20 ++++++++++++++++++++
 lib/PublicInbox/ViewVCS.pm     | 15 ++++++++++++++-

diff --git a/contrib/css/216dark.css b/contrib/css/216dark.css
index 2fd85d0815fef6ae4ac8dfec2131ca2c1d437159..35ef7aa5a7fef1f76b05164c57f604519b11f37e 100644
--- a/contrib/css/216dark.css
+++ b/contrib/css/216dark.css
@@ -24,3 +24,23 @@ *.add { color:#0ff }
 *.del { color:#f0f }
 *.head { color:#fff }
 *.hunk { color:#c93 }
+
+/*
+ * highlight 3.x colors (tested 3.18)
+ * this doesn't use most of the colors available (I find too many
+ * colors overwhelming).  So the #ccc default is commented out.
+ */
+.hl.num { color:#f30 }
+.hl.esc { color:#f0f }
+.hl.str { color:#f30 }
+.hl.pps { color:#f30 }
+/* .hl.slc { color:#ccc } */
+.hl.com { color:#09f }
+.hl.ppc { color:#f0f }
+/* .hl.opt { color:#ccc } */
+/* .hl.ipl { color:#ccc } */
+/* .hl.lin { color:#ccc } */
+.hl.kwa { color:#ff0 }
+.hl.kwb { color:#0ff }
+.hl.kwc { color:#ff0 }
+/* .hl.kwd { color:#ccc } */
diff --git a/lib/PublicInbox/UserContent.pm b/lib/PublicInbox/UserContent.pm
index b34ebf91b0caa9649bdf071180bd69fea5049126..514cd952c6d2f0e3f0b67963557805e7ac4053de 100644
--- a/lib/PublicInbox/UserContent.pm
+++ b/lib/PublicInbox/UserContent.pm
@@ -36,6 +36,26 @@ 	*.add { color:#0ff }
 	*.del { color:#f0f }
 	*.head { color:#fff }
 	*.hunk { color:#c93 }
+
+	/*
+	 * highlight 3.x colors (tested 3.18)
+	 * this doesn't use most of the colors available (I find too many
+	 * colors overwhelming).  So the #ccc default is commented out.
+	 */
+	.hl.num { color:#f30 }
+	.hl.esc { color:#f0f }
+	.hl.str { color:#f30 }
+	.hl.pps { color:#f30 }
+	/* .hl.slc { color:#ccc } */
+	.hl.com { color:#09f }
+	.hl.ppc { color:#f0f }
+	/* .hl.opt { color:#ccc } */
+	/* .hl.ipl { color:#ccc } */
+	/* .hl.lin { color:#ccc } */
+	.hl.kwa { color:#ff0 }
+	.hl.kwb { color:#0ff }
+	.hl.kwc { color:#ff0 }
+	/* .hl.kwd { color:#ccc } */
 _
 }
 # end of auto-updated sub
diff --git a/lib/PublicInbox/ViewVCS.pm b/lib/PublicInbox/ViewVCS.pm
index 5de37ee6afba06b28c94499db2a69d8354e1d166..a8aa0b61e2934b96b3fd4eff8fdba151017a074d 100644
--- a/lib/PublicInbox/ViewVCS.pm
+++ b/lib/PublicInbox/ViewVCS.pm
@@ -21,6 +21,11 @@ use PublicInbox::SolverGit;
 use PublicInbox::WwwStream;
 use PublicInbox::Linkify;
 use PublicInbox::Hval qw(ascii_html to_filename);
+my $hl = eval {
+	require PublicInbox::HlMod;
+	PublicInbox::HlMod->new;
+};
+
 my %QP_MAP = ( A => 'oid_a', B => 'oid_b', a => 'path_a', b => 'path_b' );
 my $max_size = 1024 * 1024; # TODO: configurable
 my $enc_utf8 = find_encoding('UTF-8');
@@ -88,6 +93,14 @@ 	$$blob = $enc_utf8->decode($$blob);
 	my $nl = ($$blob =~ tr/\n/\n/);
 	my $pad = length($nl);
 
+	$l->linkify_1($$blob);
+	my $ok = $hl->do_hl($blob, $path) if $hl;
+	if ($ok) {
+		$blob = $ok;
+	} else {
+		$$blob = ascii_html($$blob);
+	}
+
 	# using some of the same CSS class names and ids as cgit
 	$log = "<pre>$oid $type $size bytes $raw_link</pre>" .
 		"<hr /><table\nclass=blob>".
@@ -96,7 +109,7 @@ 			sprintf("<a id=n$_ href=#n$_>% ${pad}u</a>\n", $_)
 		} (1..$nl)) . '</pre></td>' .
 		'<td><pre> </pre></td>'. # pad for non-CSS users
 		"<td\nclass=lines><pre\nstyle='white-space:pre'><code>" .
-		ascii_html($$blob) .
+		$l->linkify_2($$blob) .
 		'</code></pre></td></tr></table>' . $log;
 
 	html_page($ctx, 200, \$log);