De-goof and partially normalize:

  apache2.nanorc
  apacheconf.nanorc
  aptsrclist.nanorc
  asm.nanorc
  bash.nanorc
  changelog.nanorc # NOTE: changelog.nanorc and changelogs.nanorc are questionable, and may cover only some niche use cases
  changelogs.nanorc # SEE: NOTE for changelog.nanorc
  c.nanorc
  coffee.nanorc
  config2.nanorc
  config3.nanorc
  configfiles.nanorc
  config.nanorc
  conf.nanorc
  conky.nanorc
  css.nanorc # NOTE: css.nanorc is questionable in terms of completeness.
  cython.nanorc

Remove commented legacy blocks from:
  changelog.nanorc

Remove altogether:
  debian.nanorc # NOTE: Nearly identical to aptsrclist.nanorc, except with less-sensible colour choices.

apache2.nanorc

@@ -1,6 +1,3 @@
-## Apache httpd.conf highlighting
-##
-#how to add sites-enabled files?  "default" is too generic to keep in here I think
 syntax "Apache2" "httpd.conf$"
 color brightwhite "(ServerRoot|LoadModule|(Lock|Pid)File|Timeout|(Max)?KeepAlive(Requests|Timeout)?)"
 color brightwhite "(User|Group|LogFormat|ErrorLog|Include|(Script)?Alias)"
@@ -32,11 +29,7 @@ color magenta "[[:space:]]+[0-9]+[[:space:]]*"
 color magenta "(/)?(2[0-5]{2}|1[0-9]{2}|[1-9][0-9]|[1-9])(\.(2[0-5]{2}|1[0-9]{2}|[1-9][0-9]|[0-9])){3}([[:space:]]+::(2[0-5]{2}|1[0-9]{2}|[1-9][0-9]|[0-9])/(2[0-5]{2}|1[0-9]{2}|[1-9][0-9]|[0-9]))?"
 color brightcyan start="<" end=">"
 color white ""(\\.|[^\"])*""
-# Unix-based paths
-# can't use \] in the regex for some reason?!? Maybe a bug?
-# this is preventing a 100% "to the end of the line" match for a few
-# lines (the trailing characters from ] to the EOL are not highlighted.
-# if anyone knows how to make it work, let me know.. ;)
+# FIXME: Unix paths can't use \] in the regex for some reason?!? Maybe a bug? this is preventing a 100% "to the end of the line" match for a few lines (the trailing characters from ] to the EOL are not highlighted.
 color white "[[:space:]]+(/[/\[\^#A-Za-z0-9\.\*\_\-]+)+"
 color green "^[[:space:]]*#.*" 
 color cyan "\<(ServerName|Serveralias|DocumentRoot|DirectoryIndex|ErrorLog|CustomLog)\>"

apacheconf.nanorc

@@ -1,4 +1,3 @@
-# Apache files
 syntax "apacheconf" "httpd\.conf|mime\.types|\.conf$"
 color yellow ".+"
 color brightcyan "(AcceptMutex|AcceptPathInfo|AccessFileName|Action|AddAlt|AddAltByEncoding|AddAltByType|AddCharset|AddDefaultCharset|AddDescription|AddEncoding)"

aptsrclist.nanorc

@@ -1,17 +1,20 @@
-## syntax highlighting for /etc/apt/sources.list
-
 syntax "apt/sources.list" "sources\.list(\.old|~)?$"
-# component
+## Component
 color brightmagenta "^deb(-src)? ((http|file|ftp):/[^ ]+|cdrom:\[[^\]]+\]/|cdrom:\[[a-zA-Z0-9\._\-\(\) ]+\]/) [^ ]+ .+$"
-# distribution
+
+## Distribution
 color brightred "^deb(-src)? ((http|file|ftp):/[^ ]+|cdrom:\[[^\]]+\]/|cdrom:\[[a-zA-Z0-9\._\-\(\) ]+\]/) [^ ]+"
-# URI
+
+## URI
 color brightgreen "(http|file|ftp):/[^ ]+"
-# cdroms
-# [^\]] does not workÉ
+
+## CD-ROMs
+# FIXME: [^\]] does not work.
 color brightgreen "cdrom:\[[a-zA-Z0-9\._\-\(\) ]+\]/"
-# deb / deb-src
+
+## deb / deb-src
 color cyan "^deb"
 color brightblue "^deb-src"
-# comments
+
+## Comments
 color brightyellow "#.*"

asm.nanorc

@@ -1,17 +1,19 @@
-## assembler.
-##
 syntax "asm" "\.(S|s|asm)$"
 color red "\<[A-Z_]{2,}\>"
 color brightgreen "\.(data|subsection|text)"
 color green "\.(align|file|globl|global|hidden|section|size|type|weak)"
 color brightyellow "\.(ascii|asciz|byte|double|float|hword|int|long|short|single|struct|word)"
 icolor brightred "^[[:space:]]*[.0-9A-Z_]*:"
 color brightcyan "^[[:space:]]*#[[:space:]]*(define|undef|include|ifn?def|endif|elif|else|if|warning|error)"
-## Highlight strings (note: VERY resource intensive)
+
+## Strings 
+# NOTE: Very resource intensive.
 color brightyellow "<[^= 	]*>" ""(\\.|[^"])*""
 color brightyellow start=""(\\.|[^"])*\\[[:space:]]*$" end="^(\\.|[^"])*""
-## Highlight comments
+
+## Comments
 color brightblue "//.*"
 color brightblue start="/\*" end="\*/"
-## Highlight trailing whitespace
+
+## Trailing whitespace
 color ,green "[[:space:]]+$"

bash.nanorc

@@ -1,36 +1,29 @@
-# Bash Syntax Highlighting
-#
-# Bram Schoenmakers <[email protected]>
-#
-# Version 1.1
-
 syntax "bash" "\.sh$" "\.bash$"
 header "^#!.*/(ba|k|pdk)?sh[-0-9_]*"
 
-# Some Bash syntax first
-
-# Control
+## Control
 color magenta "\<(if|else|for|function|case|esac|in|select|until|while|do|elif|then|set|\.|done|fi)\>"
 
-# Brackets and redirects
+## Brackets and redirects
 color yellow "[(){}[;|<>]"
 color yellow "\]"
 
-# Builtins
+## Builtins
 color red "\<(source|alias|bg|bind|break|builtin|cd|command|compgen|complete|continue|dirs|disown|echo|enable|eval|exec|exit|fc|fg|getopts|hash|help|history|jobs|kill|let|logout|popd|printf|pushd|pwd|return|set|shift|shopt|suspend|test|times|trap|type|ulimit|umask|unalias|wait)\>"
 
-# Unix Commands
+## Unix Commands
 color red "\<(arch|awk|bash|bunzip2|bzcat|bzcmp|bzdiff|bzegrep|bzfgrep|bzgrep|bzip2|bzip2recover|bzless|bzmore|cat|chattr|chgrp|chmod|chown|chvt|cp|date|dd|deallocvt|df|dir|dircolors|dmesg|dnsdomainname|domainname|du|dumpkeys|echo|ed|egrep|false|fgconsole|fgrep|fuser|gawk|getkeycodes|gocr|grep|groups|gunzip|gzexe|gzip|hostname|igawk|install|kbd_mode|kbdrate|killall|last|lastb|link|ln|loadkeys|loadunimap|login|ls|lsattr|lsmod|lsmod.old|mapscrn|mesg|mkdir|mkfifo|mknod|mktemp|more|mount|mv|nano|netstat|nisdomainname|openvt|pgawk|pidof|ping|ps|pstree|pwd|rbash|readlink|red|resizecons|rm|rmdir|run-parts|sash|sed|setfont|setkeycodes|setleds|setmetamode|setserial|sh|showkey|shred|sleep|ssed|stat|stty|su|sync|tar|tempfile|touch|true|umount|uname|unicode_start|unicode_stop|unlink|utmpdump|uuidgen|vdir|wall|wc|ypdomainname|zcat|zcmp|zdiff|zegrep|zfgrep|zforce|zgrep|zless|zmore|znew|zsh)\>"
 
-# More Unix Commands
-color red "\<(aclocal|aconnect|aplay|apm|apmsleep|apropos|ar|arecord|as|as86|autoconf|autoheader|automake|awk|basename|bc|bison|c\+\+|cal|cat|cc|cdda2wav|cdparanoia|cdrdao|cd-read|cdrecord|chfn|chgrp|chmod|chown|chroot|chsh|clear|cmp|co|col|comm|cp|cpio|cpp|cut|dc|dd|df|diff|diff3|dir|dircolors|directomatic|dirname|du|env|expr|fbset|file|find|flex|flex\+\+|fmt|free|ftp|funzip|fuser|g\+\+|gawk|gc|gcc|gdb|getent|getopt|gettext|gettextize|gimp|gimp-remote|gimptool|gmake|gs|head|hexdump|id|install|join|kill|killall|ld|ld86|ldd|less|lex|ln|locate|lockfile|logname|lp|lpr|ls|lynx|m4|make|man|mkdir|mknod|msgfmt|mv|namei|nasm|nawk|nice|nl|nm|nm86|nmap|nohup|nop|od|passwd|patch|pcregrep|pcretest|perl|perror|pidof|pr|printf|procmail|prune|ps2ascii|ps2epsi|ps2frag|ps2pdf|ps2ps|psbook|psmerge|psnup|psresize|psselect|pstops|rcs|rev|rm|scp|sed|seq|setterm|shred|size|size86|skill|slogin|snice|sort|sox|split|ssh|ssh-add|ssh-agent|ssh-keygen|ssh-keyscan|stat|strings|strip|sudo|suidperl|sum|tac|tail|tee|test|tr|uniq|unlink|unzip|updatedb|updmap|uptime|users|vmstat|w|wc|wget|whatis|whereis|which|who|whoami|write|xargs|yacc|yes|zip|zsoelim)\>"
+## More Unix Commands
+color red "\<(aclocal|aconnect|aplay|apm|apmsleep|apropos|ar|arecord|as|as86|autoconf|autoheader|automake|awk|basename|bc|bison|c\+\+|cal|cat|cc|cdda2wav|cdparanoia|cdrdao|cd-read|cdrecord|chfn|chgrp|chmod|chown|chroot|chsh|clear|cmp|co|col|comm|cp|cpio|cpp|cut|dc|dd|df|diff|diff3|dir|dircolors|directomatic|dirname|du|env|expr|fbset|file|find|flex|flex\+\+|fmt|free|ftp|funzip|fuser|g\+\+|gawk|gc|gcc|gdb|getent|getopt|gettext|gettextize|gimp|gimp-remote|gimptool|gmake|gs|head|hexdump|id|install|join|kill|killall|ld|ld86|ldd|less|lex|ln|locate|lockfile|logname|lp|lpr|ls|lynx|m4|make|man|mkdir|mknod|msgfmt|mv|namei|nasm|nawk|nc|nice|nl|nm|nm86|nmap|nohup|nop|od|passwd|patch|pcregrep|pcretest|perl|perror|pidof|pr|printf|procmail|prune|ps2ascii|ps2epsi|ps2frag|ps2pdf|ps2ps|psbook|psmerge|psnup|psresize|psselect|pstops|rcs|rev|rm|scp|sed|seq|setterm|shred|size|size86|skill|slogin|snice|sort|sox|split|ssh|ssh-add|ssh-agent|ssh-keygen|ssh-keyscan|stat|strings|strip|sudo|suidperl|sum|tac|tail|tee|test|tr|uniq|unlink|unzip|updatedb|updmap|uptime|users|vmstat|w|wc|wget|whatis|whereis|which|who|whoami|write|xargs|yacc|yes|zip|zsoelim)\>"
 
-# Strings
+## Strings
 color blue "\"(\\.|[^\"])*\""
 color blue "'(\\.|[^\'])*'"
 
-# Variables, keep it below the strings, such that vars are highlighted inside strings.
+## Variables
+# NOTE: Keep this section below the Strings section, such that Variables are highlighted inside strings.
 color cyan start="[$@%]" end="([[:alnum:]]|_)*"
 
-# Comments
+## Comments
 color green "#.*$"

c.nanorc

@@ -1,5 +1,3 @@
-## C/C++.
-##
 syntax "c" "\.(c(c|pp|xx)?|C)$" "\.(h(h|pp|xx)?|H)$" "\.ii?$"
 color brightred "\<[A-Z_][0-9A-Z_]+\>" 
 color green "\<(float|double|bool|char|int|short|long|sizeof|enum|void|static|const|struct|union|typedef|extern|(un)?signed|inline)\>"
@@ -10,19 +8,17 @@ color brightyellow "\<(try|throw|catch|operator|new|delete)\>"
 color magenta "\<(goto|continue|break|return)\>"
 color brightcyan "^[[:space:]]*#[[:space:]]*(define|include|(un|ifn?)def|endif|el(if|se)|if|warning|error)"
 color brightmagenta "'([^'\]|(\\["'abfnrtv\\]))'" "'\\(([0-3]?[0-7]{1,2}))'" "'\\x[0-9A-Fa-f]{1,2}'"
-##
+
 ## GCC builtins
 color cyan "__attribute__[[:space:]]*\(\([^)]*\)\)" "__(aligned|asm|builtin|hidden|inline|packed|restrict|section|typeof|weak)__"
-##
-## String highlighting.  You will in general want your comments and
-## strings to come last, because syntax highlighting rules will be
-## applied in the order they are read in.
+
+## Strings
+# NOTE: You will in general want your comments and strings to come last, because syntax highlighting rules will be applied in the order they are read in.
 color brightyellow "<[^= 	]*>" ""(\\.|[^"])*""
-##
-## This string is VERY resource intensive!
+# NOTE: Very resource intensive.
 color brightyellow start=""(\\.|[^"])*\\[[:space:]]*$" end="^(\\.|[^"])*""
 
-## Comment highlighting
+## Comments
 color brightblue "//.*"
 color brightblue start="/\*" end="\*/"
 

changelog.nanorc

@@ -1,4 +1,5 @@
 syntax "changelog" "ChangeLog$"
+
 color brightgreen "^\+.*"
 color green "^\+\+\+.*"
 color brightblue "^ .*"
@@ -7,21 +8,3 @@ color red "^---.*"
 color red "(\d\d\s\w\+\s\d\{4\})"
 color brightyellow "^@@.*"
 color magenta "^diff.*"
-
-#syn region GentooChangeLogRelease start=/^\*/ end=/$/ contains=GentooChangeLogReleaseDate
-#syn match GentooChangeLogReleaseDate contained /(\d\d\s\w\+\s\d\{4\})/
-#syn region GentooChangeLogEntry start=/^\s\+/ end=/\n\n/
-#           \ contains=GentooChangeLogEntryDate,GentooBug
-#syn region GentooChangeLogEntryDate contained start=/\d\?\d\s\w\+\s\d\{4\}/ end=/;/
-#           \ nextgroup=GentooChangeLogEntryAuthor,GentooChangeLogEntryEmail skipwhite skipnl
-#syn region GentooChangeLogEntryAuthor contained start=/\S/ end=/\( <\)\@=/
-#           \ nextgroup=GentooChangeLogEntryEmail skipwhite skipnl
-#syn match  GentooChangeLogEntryEmail contained /<\?[a-zA-Z0-9\.\-\_]\+@[a-zA-Z0-9\.\-\_]\+>\?/
-#           \ nextgroup=GentooChangeLogFiles skipwhite skipnl
-#syn region GentooChangeLogFiles contained start=/\(\S\)\@=/ end=/:/
-#           \ contains=GentooChangeLogAddFile,GentooChangeLogDelFile,GentooChangeLogModFile
-#" Add / delete / changed files
-#syn region GentooChangeLogAddFile contained start=/+/ end=/\([,:]\)\@=/
-#syn region GentooChangeLogDelFile contained start=/-/ end=/\([,:]\)\@=/
-#syn region GentooChangeLogModFile contained start=/[a-zA-Z0-9]/ end=/\([,:]\)\@=/
-

changelogs.nanorc

@@ -1,5 +1,3 @@
-## Changelog file syntax
-##
 syntax "changelogs" "ChangeLog*$" "HISTORY$" "NEWS$"
 
 color green "\+"
@@ -8,7 +6,8 @@ color brightwhite "[0-9]"
 color brightblue "[0-9][0-9]\:[0-9][0-9]\:[0-9][0-9]"
 color blue "[0-9][0-9][0-9][0-9]\-[0-9][0-9]\-[0-9][0-9]"
 color blue "[0-9][0-9][0-9][0-9]\/[0-9][0-9]\/[0-9][0-9]"
-color blue "\<(CEST|CET|CST|CDT|EDT)\>"
+# NOTE: Alphabetical timezone codes are goofy, and this is hardly an exhaustive list of them.
+color blue "\<(CEST|CET|CST|CDT|EDT|UTC)\>"
 color yellow "[0-9]\..*$"
 color cyan "\*.*$"
 color brightblue "\<(pre.*$|beta.*$|rc.*$|release.*$)\>"

coffee.nanorc

@@ -1,28 +1,28 @@
 syntax "coffee" "\.coffee$"
-## Decimal, octal and hexadecimal numbers.
+## Decimal, octal and hexadecimal numbers
 color red "\<[-+]?([1-9][0-9]*|0[0-7]*|0x[0-9a-fA-F]+)([uU][lL]?|[lL][uU]?)?\>"
 
-## Floating-point numbers.
+## Floating-point numbers
 color red "\<[-+]?([0-9]+\.[0-9]*|[0-9]*\.[0-9]+)([EePp][+-]?[0-9]+)?[fFlL]?"
 color red "\<[-+]?([0-9]+[EePp][+-]?[0-9]+)[fFlL]?"
 
-## Keywords and punctuation of similar purpose.
+## Keywords and punctuation of similar purpose
 color brightblue "\<(break|case|catch|continue|default|delete|do|else|finally)\>"
 color brightblue "\<(and|by|class|do|extends|for|function|if|isnt|is|in|instanceof|new|null|of|return|switch)\>"
 color brightblue "\<(switch|this|throw|try|typeof|until|undefined|var|void|while|when|with)\>"
 color brightblue "(->|=|\.\.|<|>|\|\|&&|!)"
 
-## Type specifiers and special types.
+## Type specifiers and special types
 color magenta "\<(Array|Boolean|Date|Enumerator|Error|Function|Math)\>"
 color magenta "\<(Number|Object|RegExp|String)\>"
 color magenta "\<(true|yes|on|false|off|no)\>"
 
-## Strings.
+## Strings
 color green "L?\"(\\"|[^"])*\""
 color green "L?'(\'|[^'])*'"
 
-## Escapes.
+## Escapes
 color red "\\[0-7][0-7]?[0-7]?|\\x[0-9a-fA-F]+|\\[bfnrt'"\?\\]"
 
-## Comments.
+## Comments
 color cyan "#\ .*$"

conf.nanorc

@@ -1,21 +1,18 @@
-# Generic *.conf file syntax highlighting
-#
+syntax "conf" "\.c(onf|nf|fg)$"
 
-syntax "conf" "\.(c(onf|nf|fg))$"
-
-# string
+# Strings
 icolor yellow ""(\\.|[^"])*""
 
-# variable name & value
+# Variable name and value
 icolor brightyellow start="=" end="$"
 icolor magenta start="(^|[[:space:]])[0-9a-z-]" end="="
 
-# bracket/parenthesis
+# Braces and parentheses
 icolor brightred "(^|[[:space:]])((\[|\()[0-9a-z_!@#$%^&*-]+(\]|\)))"
 
-# number
+# Numbers
 color green "[[:space:]][0-9.KM]+"
 
-# comment
+# Comments
 color cyan start="(^|[[:space:]])(#|;).*$" end="$"
 color brightblue "(^|[[:space:]])(#|;)"

config.nanorc

@@ -1,4 +1,3 @@
-### several config files
 syntax "config" "(\.|/)config$" "(\.|/)logout$" "(\.|/)COLORS$" "(\.|/)colors$"
 color red "/.*$" "TERM" "\..*$" "=.*$" "\*.*$"
 color white ":unscaled" "[0-9]"

config2.nanorc

@@ -1,4 +1,3 @@
-### more config files
 syntax "config2" "(\.|/)env$" "(\.|/)server.$" "hosts" "gpm" "local.*$" "bootsplash" "crypto-loop"
 color red "/.*$" "http\:\/\/.*$"
 color white ":unscaled"

config3.nanorc

@@ -1,4 +1,3 @@
-### even more config files ;-)
 syntax "config3" "iptables" "ntp.*$" "rsyncd" "xfs" "saslauthd" "timidity" "net.*$" "hdparm" "esound" "login.*$"
 color red "/.*$" "http\:\/\/.*$" ""(\\.|[^\"])*"" "\<(server)\>" "\<(logfile)\>""\<(driftfile)\>"
 color white ":unscaled" "http\:\/\/" "ftp\:\/\/" "rsync\:\/\/"

configfiles.nanorc

@@ -1,4 +1,3 @@
-### all *conf files  (e.g. make.conf, xorg.conf, grub.conf, make.globals, Xfce files...)
 syntax "configfiles" "(\.|/)conf$" "(\.|/)ample$" "(\.|/)globals$" "xfce.*$" "syslog-ng" "sudoers"
 color brightwhite "\<(alias)\>"
 color blue "<(\\.|[^'])*>"

conky.nanorc

@@ -1,6 +1,4 @@
-## Conky config highlighting
-##
-syntax "Conky" ".conkyrc$"
+syntax "conky" ".conkyrc$"
 color brightblue "(use_spacer|background|use_xft|xftfont|xftalpha)"
 color brightblue "(mail_spool|update_interval|own_window)"
 color brightblue "(double_buffer|minimum_size)"

css.nanorc

@@ -1,19 +1,8 @@
-##############################################################################
-#
-# Syntax highlighting for CSS files
-#  
-# Author:  Simon Rupf, simon.rupf(a)int-ag.ch
-# License: GPL 2  or later
-#
-# Version: 2005-02-14
-#
-##############################################################################
-
 syntax "css" "\.css$"
-color brightred     "."
-color brightyellow  start="\{" end="\}"
-color brightwhite           start=":" end="[;^\{]"
-color brightblue    ":active|:focus|:hover|:link|:visited|:link|:after|:before|$"
-color brightblue    start="\/\*" end="\\*/"
-color green         ";|:|\{|\}"
+color brightred "."
+color brightyellow start="\{" end="\}"
+color brightwhite start=":" end="[;^\{]"
+color brightblue ":active|:focus|:hover|:link|:visited|:link|:after|:before|$"
+color brightblue start="\/\*" end="\\*/"
+color green ";|:|\{|\}"
 

cython.nanorc

@@ -1,30 +1,26 @@
-## Cython nanorc, based off of Python nanorc.
-##
 syntax "cython" "\.pyx$" "\.pxd$" "\.pyi$"
 icolor brightred "def [ 0-9A-Z_]+"
 icolor brightred "cpdef [ 0-9A-Z_]+\(.\*?\):"
 icolor brightred "cdef cppclass [ 0-9A-Z_]+\(.\*?\):"
 
-
-
-# Python Keyword Color
+## Python keywords
 color green "\<(and|as|assert|class|def|del|elif|else|except|exec|finally|for|from|global|if|import|in|is|lambda|map|not|or|pass|print|raise|try|while|with)\>"
 color brightmagenta "\<(continue|break|return)\>"
 
-# Cython Keyword Color
+## Cython keywords
 color green "\<(cdef|cimport|cpdef|cppclass|ctypedef|extern|include|namespace|property|struct)\>"
 color red "\<(bint|char|double|int|public|void)\>"
 
-#Operator Color
+## Operators
 color yellow "[.:;,+*|=!\%]" "<" ">" "/" "-" "&"
 
-#Parenthetical Color
+## Braces and parentheses
 color magenta "[(){}]" "\[" "\]"
 
-#String Color
+## Strings
 color cyan "['][^']*[^\\][']" "[']{3}.*[^\\][']{3}"
 color cyan "["][^"]*[^\\]["]" "["]{3}.*[^\\]["]{3}"
 color cyan start=""""[^"]" end=""""" start="'''[^']" end="'''"
 
-# Comment Color
+## Comments
 color brightblue "#.*$"