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1<p align="center">
2 <img src="doc/logo-header.svg" alt="bat - a cat clone with wings"><br>
3 <a href="https://travis-ci.org/sharkdp/bat"><img src="https://travis-ci.org/sharkdp/bat.svg?branch=master" alt="Build Status"></a>
4 <a href="https://ci.appveyor.com/project/sharkdp/bat"><img src="https://ci.appveyor.com/api/projects/status/cptsmtbiwbnr2vhf/branch/master?svg=true"></a>
5 <img src="https://img.shields.io/crates/l/bat.svg" alt="license">
6 <a href="https://crates.io/crates/bat"><img src="https://img.shields.io/crates/v/bat.svg?colorB=319e8c" alt="Version info"></a><br>
7 A <i>cat(1)</i> clone with syntax highlighting and Git integration.
8</p>
10<p align="center">
11 <a href="#syntax-highlighting">Key Features</a> •
12 <a href="#how-to-use">How To Use</a> •
13 <a href="#installation">Installation</a> •
14 <a href="#customization">Customization</a> •
15 <a href="#project-goals-and-alternatives">Project goals, alternatives</a><br>
16 [<a href="https://github.com/chinanf-boy/bat-zh">中文</a>] [<a href="doc/README-ja.md">日本語</a>] [<a href="doc/README-ko.md">한국어</a>] [<a href="doc/README-ru.md">Русский</a>]
17</p>
19### Syntax highlighting
21`bat` supports syntax highlighting for a large number of programming and markup
22languages:
24![Syntax highlighting example](https://imgur.com/rGsdnDe.png)
26### Git integration
28`bat` communicates with `git` to show modifications with respect to the index
29(see left side bar):
31![Git integration example](https://i.imgur.com/2lSW4RE.png)
33### Show non-printable characters
35You can use the `-A`/`--show-all` option to show and highlight non-printable
36characters:
38![Non-printable character example](https://i.imgur.com/WndGp9H.png)
40### Automatic paging
42`bat` can pipe its own output to `less` if the output is too large for one screen.
44### File concatenation
46Oh.. you can also use it to concatenate files :wink:. Whenever
47`bat` detects a non-interactive terminal (i.e. when you pipe into another process
48or into a file), `bat` will act as a drop-in replacement for `cat` and
49fall back to printing the plain file contents.
51## How to use
53Display a single file on the terminal
55```bash
56> bat README.md
57```
59Display multiple files at once
61```bash
62> bat src/*.rs
63```
65Read from stdin, determine the syntax automatically (note, highlighting will
66only work if the syntax can be determined from the first line of the file,
67usually through a shebang such as `#!/bin/sh`)
69```bash
70> curl -s https://sh.rustup.rs | bat
71```
73Read from stdin, specify the language explicitly
75```bash
76> yaml2json .travis.yml | json_pp | bat -l json
77```
79Show and highlight non-printable characters:
80```bash
81> bat -A /etc/hosts
82```
84Use it as a `cat` replacement:
86```bash
87bat > note.md # quickly create a new file
89bat header.md content.md footer.md > document.md
91bat -n main.rs # show line numbers (only)
93bat f - g # output 'f', then stdin, then 'g'.
94```
96### Integration with other tools
98#### `find` or `fd`
100You can use the `-exec` option of `find` to preview all search results with `bat`:
101```bash
102find … -exec bat {} +
103```
105If you happen to use [`fd`](https://github.com/sharkdp/fd), you can use the `-X`/`--exec-batch` option to do the same:
106```bash
107fd … -X bat
108```
110#### `ripgrep`
112With [`batgrep`](https://github.com/eth-p/bat-extras/blob/master/doc/batgrep.md), `bat` can be used as the printer for [`ripgrep`](https://github.com/BurntSushi/ripgrep) search results.
114```bash
115batgrep needle src/
116```
118#### `tail -f`
120`bat` can be combined with `tail -f` to continuously monitor a given file with syntax highlighting.
121```bash
122tail -f /var/log/pacman.log | bat --paging=never -l log
123```
124Note that we have to switch off paging in order for this to work. We have also specified the syntax
125explicitly (`-l log`), as it can not be auto-detected in this case.
127#### `git`
129You can combine `bat` with `git show` to view an older version of a given file with proper syntax
130highlighting:
131```bash
132git show v0.6.0:src/main.rs | bat -l rs
133```
135Note that syntax highlighting within diffs is currently not supported. If you are looking for this, check out [`delta`](https://github.com/dandavison/delta).
137#### `xclip`
139The line numbers and Git modification markers in the output of `bat` can make it hard to copy
140the contents of a file. To prevent this, you can call `bat` with the `-p`/`--plain` option or
141simply pipe the output into `xclip`:
142```bash
143bat main.cpp | xclip
144```
145`bat` will detect that the output is being redirected and print the plain file contents.
147#### `man`
149`bat` can be used as a colorizing pager for `man`, by setting the
150`MANPAGER` environment variable:
152```bash
153export MANPAGER="sh -c 'col -bx | bat -l man -p'"
154man 2 select
155```
157It might also be necessary to set `MANROFFOPT="-c"` if you experience
158formatting problems.
160If you prefer to have this bundled in a new command, you can also use [`batman`](https://github.com/eth-p/bat-extras/blob/master/doc/batman.md).
162Note that the [Manpage syntax](assets/syntaxes/02_Extra/Manpage.sublime-syntax) is developed in this repository and still needs some work.
164#### `prettier` / `shfmt` / `rustfmt`
166The [`prettybat`](https://github.com/eth-p/bat-extras/blob/master/doc/prettybat.md) script is a wrapper that will format code and print it with `bat`.
169## Installation
171[![Packaging status](https://repology.org/badge/vertical-allrepos/bat.svg)](https://repology.org/project/bat/versions)
173### On Ubuntu (using `apt`)
174*... and other Debian-based Linux distributions.*
176`bat` is making its way through the [Ubuntu](https://packages.ubuntu.com/eoan/bat) and
177[Debian](https://packages.debian.org/sid/bat) package release process, and is available
178for Ubuntu as of Eoan 19.10. On Debian `bat` is currently only available on the unstable
179"Sid" branch.
181If your Ubuntu/Debian installation is new enough you can simply run:
183```bash
184apt install bat
185```
187If you install `bat` this way, please note that the executable may be installed as `batcat` instead of `bat` (due to [a name
188clash with another package](https://github.com/sharkdp/bat/issues/982)). You can set up a `bat -> batcat` symlink or alias to prevent any issues that may come up because of this and to be consistent with other distributions:
189``` bash
190mkdir -p ~/.local/bin
191ln -s /usr/bin/batcat ~/.local/bin/bat
192```
194### On Ubuntu (using most recent `.deb` packages)
195*... and other Debian-based Linux distributions.*
197If the package has not yet been promoted to your Ubuntu/Debian installation, or you want
198the most recent release of `bat`, download the latest `.deb` package from the
199[release page](https://github.com/sharkdp/bat/releases) and install it via:
201```bash
202sudo dpkg -i bat_0.15.4_amd64.deb # adapt version number and architecture
203```
205### On Alpine Linux
207You can install [the `bat` package](https://pkgs.alpinelinux.org/packages?name=bat)
208from the official sources, provided you have the appropriate repository enabled:
210```bash
211apk add bat
212```
214### On Arch Linux
216You can install [the `bat` package](https://www.archlinux.org/packages/community/x86_64/bat/)
217from the official sources:
219```bash
220pacman -S bat
221```
223### On Fedora
225You can install [the `bat` package](https://koji.fedoraproject.org/koji/packageinfo?packageID=27506) from the official [Fedora Modular](https://docs.fedoraproject.org/en-US/modularity/using-modules/) repository.
227```bash
228dnf install bat
229```
231### On Gentoo Linux
233You can install [the `bat` package](https://packages.gentoo.org/packages/sys-apps/bat)
234from the official sources:
236```bash
237emerge sys-apps/bat
238```
240### On Void Linux
242You can install `bat` via xbps-install:
243```bash
244xbps-install -S bat
245```
247### On FreeBSD
249You can install a precompiled [`bat` package](https://www.freshports.org/textproc/bat) with pkg:
251```bash
252pkg install bat
253```
255or build it on your own from the FreeBSD ports:
257```bash
258cd /usr/ports/textproc/bat
259make install
260```
262### Via nix
264You can install `bat` using the [nix package manager](https://nixos.org/nix):
266```bash
267nix-env -i bat
268```
270### On openSUSE
272You can install `bat` with zypper:
274```bash
275zypper install bat
276```
278### On macOS
280You can install `bat` with [Homebrew](http://braumeister.org/formula/bat):
282```bash
283brew install bat
284```
286Or install `bat` with [MacPorts](https://ports.macports.org/port/bat/summary):
288```bash
289port install bat
290```
292### On Windows
294There are a few options to install `bat` on Windows. Once you have installed `bat`,
295take a look at the ["Using `bat` on Windows"](#using-bat-on-windows) section.
297#### Prerequisites
299You will need to install the [Visual C++ Redistributable](https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/2977003/the-latest-supported-visual-c-downloads) package.
301#### With Chocolatey
303You can install `bat` via [Chocolatey](https://chocolatey.org/packages/Bat):
304```bash
305choco install bat
306```
308#### With Scoop
310You can install `bat` via [scoop](https://scoop.sh/):
311```bash
312scoop install bat
313```
315#### From prebuilt binaries:
317You can download prebuilt binaries from the [Release page](https://github.com/sharkdp/bat/releases),
319You will need to install the [Visual C++ Redistributable](https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/2977003/the-latest-supported-visual-c-downloads) package.
321### From binaries
323Check out the [Release page](https://github.com/sharkdp/bat/releases) for
324prebuilt versions of `bat` for many different architectures. Statically-linked
325binaries are also available: look for archives with `musl` in the file name.
327### From source
329If you want to build `bat` from source, you need Rust 1.40 or
330higher. You can then use `cargo` to build everything:
332```bash
333cargo install --locked bat
334```
336## Customization
338### Highlighting theme
340Use `bat --list-themes` to get a list of all available themes for syntax
341highlighting. To select the `TwoDark` theme, call `bat` with the
342`--theme=TwoDark` option or set the `BAT_THEME` environment variable to
343`TwoDark`. Use `export BAT_THEME="TwoDark"` in your shell's startup file to
344make the change permanent. Alternatively, use `bat`s
345[configuration file](https://github.com/sharkdp/bat#configuration-file).
347If you want to preview the different themes on a custom file, you can use
348the following command (you need [`fzf`](https://github.com/junegunn/fzf) for this):
349```bash
350bat --list-themes | fzf --preview="bat --theme={} --color=always /path/to/file"
351```
353`bat` looks good on a dark background by default. However, if your terminal uses a
354light background, some themes like `GitHub` or `OneHalfLight` will work better for you.
355You can also use a custom theme by following the
356['Adding new themes' section below](https://github.com/sharkdp/bat#adding-new-themes).
358### Output style
360You can use the `--style` option to control the appearance of `bat`s output.
361You can use `--style=numbers,changes`, for example, to show only Git changes
362and line numbers but no grid and no file header. Set the `BAT_STYLE` environment
363variable to make these changes permanent or use `bat`s
364[configuration file](https://github.com/sharkdp/bat#configuration-file).
366### Adding new syntaxes / language definitions
368`bat` uses the excellent [`syntect`](https://github.com/trishume/syntect/)
369library for syntax highlighting. `syntect` can read any
370[Sublime Text `.sublime-syntax` file](https://www.sublimetext.com/docs/3/syntax.html)
371and theme. To add new syntax definitions, do the following.
373Create a folder with syntax definition files:
375```bash
376mkdir -p "$(bat --config-dir)/syntaxes"
377cd "$(bat --config-dir)/syntaxes"
379# Put new '.sublime-syntax' language definition files
380# in this folder (or its subdirectories), for example:
381git clone https://github.com/tellnobody1/sublime-purescript-syntax
382```
384Now use the following command to parse these files into a binary cache:
386```bash
387bat cache --build
388```
390Finally, use `bat --list-languages` to check if the new languages are available.
392If you ever want to go back to the default settings, call:
394```bash
395bat cache --clear
396```
398### Adding new themes
400This works very similar to how we add new syntax definitions.
402First, create a folder with the new syntax highlighting themes:
403```bash
404mkdir -p "$(bat --config-dir)/themes"
405cd "$(bat --config-dir)/themes"
407# Download a theme in '.tmTheme' format, for example:
408git clone https://github.com/greggb/sublime-snazzy
410# Update the binary cache
411bat cache --build
412```
414Finally, use `bat --list-themes` to check if the new themes are available.
416### Using a different pager
418`bat` uses the pager that is specified in the `PAGER` environment variable. If this variable is not
419set, `less` is used by default. If you want to use a different pager, you can either modify the
420`PAGER` variable or set the `BAT_PAGER` environment variable to override what is specified in
421`PAGER`.
423If you want to pass command-line arguments to the pager, you can also set them via the
424`PAGER`/`BAT_PAGER` variables:
426```bash
427export BAT_PAGER="less -RF"
428```
430Instead of using environment variables, you can also use `bat`s [configuration file](https://github.com/sharkdp/bat#configuration-file) to configure the pager (`--pager` option).
432**Note**: By default, if the pager is set to `less` (and no command-line options are specified),
433`bat` will pass the following command line options to the pager: `-R`/`--RAW-CONTROL-CHARS`,
434`-F`/`--quit-if-one-screen` and `-X`/`--no-init`. The last option (`-X`) is only used for `less`
435versions older than 530.
437The `-R` option is needed to interpret ANSI colors correctly. The second option (`-F`) instructs
438less to exit immediately if the output size is smaller than the vertical size of the terminal.
439This is convenient for small files because you do not have to press `q` to quit the pager. The
440third option (`-X`) is needed to fix a bug with the `--quit-if-one-screen` feature in old versions
441of `less`. Unfortunately, it also breaks mouse-wheel support in `less`.
443If you want to enable mouse-wheel scrolling on older versions of `less`, you can pass just `-R` (as
444in the example above, this will disable the quit-if-one-screen feature). For less 530 or newer,
445it should work out of the box.
447### Indentation
449`bat` expands tabs to 4 spaces by itself, not relying on the pager. To change this, simply add the
450`--tabs` argument with the number of spaces you want to be displayed.
452**Note**: Defining tab stops for the pager (via the `--pager` argument by `bat`, or via the `LESS`
453environment variable for `less`) won't be taken into account because the pager will already get
454expanded spaces instead of tabs. This behaviour is added to avoid indentation issues caused by the
455sidebar. Calling `bat` with `--tabs=0` will override it and let tabs be consumed by the pager.
457### Dark mode
459If you make use of the dark mode feature in macOS, you might want to configure `bat` to use a different
460theme based on the OS theme. The following snippet uses the `default` theme when in the _dark mode_
461and the `GitHub` theme when in the _light mode_.
463```bash
464alias cat="bat --theme=\$(defaults read -globalDomain AppleInterfaceStyle &> /dev/null && echo default || echo GitHub)"
465```
467## Configuration file
469`bat` can also be customized with a configuration file. The location of the file is dependent
470on your operating system. To get the default path for your system, call
471```
472bat --config-file
473```
475Alternatively, you can use the `BAT_CONFIG_PATH` environment variable to point `bat` to a
476non-default location of the configuration file:
477```bash
478export BAT_CONFIG_PATH="/path/to/bat.conf"
479```
481A default configuration file can be created with the `--generate-config-file` option.
482```bash
483bat --generate-config-file
484```
486### Format
488The configuration file is a simple list of command line arguments. Use `bat --help` to see a full list of possible options and values. In addition, you can add comments by prepending a line with the `#` character.
490Example configuration file:
491```bash
492# Set the theme to "TwoDark"
493--theme="TwoDark"
495# Show line numbers, Git modifications and file header (but no grid)
496--style="numbers,changes,header"
498# Use italic text on the terminal (not supported on all terminals)
499--italic-text=always
501# Use C++ syntax for .ino files
502--map-syntax "*.ino:C++"
504# Use ".gitignore"-style highlighting for ".ignore" files
505--map-syntax ".ignore:Git Ignore"
506```
508## Using `bat` on Windows
510`bat` mostly works out-of-the-box on Windows, but a few features may need extra configuration.
512### Prerequisites
514You will need to install the [Visual C++ Redistributable](https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/2977003/the-latest-supported-visual-c-downloads) package.
516### Paging
518Windows only includes a very limited pager in the form of `more`. You can download a Windows binary
519for `less` [from its homepage](http://www.greenwoodsoftware.com/less/download.html) or [through
520Chocolatey](https://chocolatey.org/packages/Less). To use it, place the binary in a directory in
521your `PATH` or [define an environment variable](#using-a-different-pager). The [Chocolatey package](#on-windows) installs `less` automatically.
523### Colors
525Windows 10 natively supports colors in both `conhost.exe` (Command Prompt) and PowerShell since
526[v1511](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windows_10_version_history#Version_1511_(November_Update)), as
527well as in newer versions of bash. On earlier versions of Windows, you can use
528[Cmder](http://cmder.net/), which includes [ConEmu](https://conemu.github.io/).
530**Note:** The Git and MSYS versions of `less` do not correctly interpret colors on Windows. If you
531don’t have any other pagers installed, you can disable paging entirely by passing `--paging=never`
532or by setting `BAT_PAGER` to an empty string.
534### Cygwin
536`bat` on Windows does not natively support Cygwin's unix-style paths (`/cygdrive/*`). When passed an absolute cygwin path as an argument, `bat` will encounter the following error: `The system cannot find the path specified. (os error 3)`
538This can be solved by creating a wrapper or adding the following function to your `.bash_profile` file:
540```bash
541bat() {
542 local index
543 local args=("$@")
544 for index in $(seq 0 ${#args[@]}) ; do
545 case "${args[index]}" in
546 -*) continue;;
547 *) [ -e "${args[index]}" ] && args[index]="$(cygpath --windows "${args[index]}")";;
548 esac
549 done
550 command bat "${args[@]}"
552```
554## Troubleshooting
556### Terminals & colors
558`bat` handles terminals *with* and *without* truecolor support. However, the colors in the syntax
559highlighting themes are not optimized for 8-bit colors and it is therefore strongly recommended
560that you use a terminal with 24-bit truecolor support (`terminator`, `konsole`, `iTerm2`, ...).
561See [this article](https://gist.github.com/XVilka/8346728) for more details and a full list of
562terminals with truecolor support.
564Make sure that your truecolor terminal sets the `COLORTERM` variable to either `truecolor` or
565`24bit`. Otherwise, `bat` will not be able to determine whether or not 24-bit escape sequences
566are supported (and fall back to 8-bit colors).
568### Line numbers and grid are hardly visible
570Please try a different theme (see `bat --list-themes` for a list). The `OneHalfDark` and
571`OneHalfLight` themes provide grid and line colors that are brighter.
573### File encodings
575`bat` natively supports UTF-8 as well as UTF-16. For every other file encoding, you may need to
576convert to UTF-8 first because the encodings can typically not be auto-detected. You can `iconv`
577to do so.
578Example: if you have a PHP file in Latin-1 (ISO-8859-1) encoding, you can call:
579``` bash
580iconv -f ISO-8859-1 -t UTF-8 my-file.php | bat
581```
582Note: you might have to use the `-l`/`--language` option if the syntax can not be auto-detected
583by `bat`.
585## Development
587```bash
588# Recursive clone to retrieve all submodules
589git clone --recursive https://github.com/sharkdp/bat
591# Build (debug version)
592cd bat
593cargo build --bins
595# Run unit tests and integration tests
596cargo test
598# Install (release version)
599cargo install --locked
601# Build a bat binary with modified syntaxes and themes
602bash assets/create.sh
603cargo install --locked --force
604```
606## Maintainers
608- [sharkdp](https://github.com/sharkdp)
609- [eth-p](https://github.com/eth-p)
611## Project goals and alternatives
613`bat` tries to achieve the following goals:
615- Provide beautiful, advanced syntax highlighting
616- Integrate with Git to show file modifications
617- Be a drop-in replacement for (POSIX) `cat`
618- Offer a user-friendly command-line interface
620There are a lot of alternatives, if you are looking for similar programs. See
621[this document](doc/alternatives.md) for a comparison.
623## License
624Copyright (c) 2018-2020 [bat-developers](https://github.com/sharkdp/bat).
626`bat` is distributed under the terms of both the MIT License and the Apache License 2.0.
628See the [LICENSE-APACHE](LICENSE-APACHE) and [LICENSE-MIT](LICENSE-MIT) files for license details.