2 <img src="doc/logo-header.svg" alt="bat - a cat clone with wings"><br>
3 <a href="https://github.com/sharkdp/bat/actions?query=workflow%3ACICD"><img src="https://github.com/sharkdp/bat/workflows/CICD/badge.svg" alt="Build Status"></a>
4 <img src="https://img.shields.io/crates/l/bat.svg" alt="license">
5 <a href="https://crates.io/crates/bat"><img src="https://img.shields.io/crates/v/bat.svg?colorB=319e8c" alt="Version info"></a><br>
6 A <i>cat(1)</i> clone with syntax highlighting and Git integration.
10 <a href="#syntax-highlighting">Key Features</a> •
11 <a href="#how-to-use">How To Use</a> •
12 <a href="#installation">Installation</a> •
13 <a href="#customization">Customization</a> •
14 <a href="#project-goals-and-alternatives">Project goals, alternatives</a><br>
16 [<a href="https://github.com/chinanf-boy/bat-zh">中文</a>]
17 [<a href="doc/README-ja.md">日本語</a>]
18 [<a href="doc/README-ko.md">한국어</a>]
19 [<a href="doc/README-ru.md">Русский</a>]
22### Syntax highlighting
24`bat` supports syntax highlighting for a large number of programming and markup
27
31`bat` communicates with `git` to show modifications with respect to the index
34
36### Show non-printable characters
38You can use the `-A`/`--show-all` option to show and highlight non-printable
41
45By default, `bat` pipes its own output to a pager (e.g. `less`) if the output is too large for one screen.
46If you would rather `bat` work like `cat` all the time (never page output), you can set `--paging=never` as an option, either on the command line or in your configuration file.
47If you intend to alias `cat` to `bat` in your shell configuration, you can use `alias cat='bat --paging=never'` to preserve the default behavior.
49#### File concatenation
51Even with a pager set, you can still use `bat` to concatenate files :wink:.
52Whenever `bat` detects a non-interactive terminal (i.e. when you pipe into another process or into a file), `bat` will act as a drop-in replacement for `cat` and fall back to printing the plain file contents, regardless of the `--pager` option's value.
56Display a single file on the terminal
62Display multiple files at once
68Read from stdin, determine the syntax automatically (note, highlighting will
69only work if the syntax can be determined from the first line of the file,
70usually through a shebang such as `#!/bin/sh`)
73> curl -s https://sh.rustup.rs | bat
76Read from stdin, specify the language explicitly
79> yaml2json .travis.yml | json_pp | bat -l json
82Show and highlight non-printable characters:
87Use it as a `cat` replacement:
90bat > note.md # quickly create a new file
92bat header.md content.md footer.md > document.md
94bat -n main.rs # show line numbers (only)
96bat f - g # output 'f', then stdin, then 'g'.
99### Integration with other tools
103You can use `bat` as a previewer for [`fzf`](https://github.com/junegunn/fzf). To do this,
104use `bat`s `--color=always` option to force colorized output. You can also use `--line-range`
105option to restrict the load times for long files:
108fzf --preview 'bat --color=always --style=numbers --line-range=:500 {}'
111For more information, see [`fzf`'s `README`](https://github.com/junegunn/fzf#preview-window).
115You can use the `-exec` option of `find` to preview all search results with `bat`:
121If you happen to use [`fd`](https://github.com/sharkdp/fd), you can use the `-X`/`--exec-batch` option to do the same:
129With [`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.
137`bat` can be combined with `tail -f` to continuously monitor a given file with syntax highlighting.
140tail -f /var/log/pacman.log | bat --paging=never -l log
143Note that we have to switch off paging in order for this to work. We have also specified the syntax
144explicitly (`-l log`), as it can not be auto-detected in this case.
148You can combine `bat` with `git show` to view an older version of a given file with proper syntax
152git show v0.6.0:src/main.rs | bat -l rs
157You can combine `bat` with `git diff` to view lines around code changes with proper syntax
161 git diff --name-only --diff-filter=d | xargs bat --diff
164If you prefer to use this as a separate tool, check out `batdiff` in [`bat-extras`](https://github.com/eth-p/bat-extras).
166If you are looking for more support for git and diff operations, check out [`delta`](https://github.com/dandavison/delta).
170The line numbers and Git modification markers in the output of `bat` can make it hard to copy
171the contents of a file. To prevent this, you can call `bat` with the `-p`/`--plain` option or
172simply pipe the output into `xclip`:
176`bat` will detect that the output is being redirected and print the plain file contents.
180`bat` can be used as a colorizing pager for `man`, by setting the
181`MANPAGER` environment variable:
184export MANPAGER="sh -c 'col -bx | bat -l man -p'"
187(replace `bat` with `batcat` if you are on Debian or Ubuntu)
189It might also be necessary to set `MANROFFOPT="-c"` if you experience
192If 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).
194Note that the [Manpage syntax](assets/syntaxes/02_Extra/Manpage.sublime-syntax) is developed in this repository and still needs some work.
196Also, note that this will [not work](https://github.com/sharkdp/bat/issues/1145) with Mandocs `man` implementation.
198#### `prettier` / `shfmt` / `rustfmt`
200The [`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`.
205[](https://repology.org/project/bat-cat/versions)
207### On Ubuntu (using `apt`)
208*... and other Debian-based Linux distributions.*
210`bat` is available on [Ubuntu since 20.04 ("Focal")](https://packages.ubuntu.com/search?keywords=bat&exact=1) and [Debian since August 2021 (Debian 11 - "Bullseye")](https://packages.debian.org/bullseye/bat).
212If your Ubuntu/Debian installation is new enough you can simply run:
218**Important**: If you install `bat` this way, please note that the executable may be installed as `batcat` instead of `bat` (due to [a name
219clash 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:
222ln -s /usr/bin/batcat ~/.local/bin/bat
225### On Ubuntu (using most recent `.deb` packages)
226*... and other Debian-based Linux distributions.*
228If the package has not yet been promoted to your Ubuntu/Debian installation, or you want
229the most recent release of `bat`, download the latest `.deb` package from the
230[release page](https://github.com/sharkdp/bat/releases) and install it via:
233sudo dpkg -i bat_0.18.3_amd64.deb # adapt version number and architecture
238You can install [the `bat` package](https://pkgs.alpinelinux.org/packages?name=bat)
239from the official sources, provided you have the appropriate repository enabled:
247You can install [the `bat` package](https://www.archlinux.org/packages/community/x86_64/bat/)
248from the official sources:
256You 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.
264You can install [the `bat` package](https://github.com/funtoo/dev-kit/tree/1.4-release/sys-apps/bat) from dev-kit.
272You can install [the `bat` package](https://packages.gentoo.org/packages/sys-apps/bat)
273from the official sources:
281You can install `bat` via xbps-install:
288You can install `bat` via pkg:
295You can install a precompiled [`bat` package](https://www.freshports.org/textproc/bat) with pkg:
301or build it on your own from the FreeBSD ports:
304cd /usr/ports/textproc/bat
310You can install `bat` package using [`pkg_add(1)`](https://man.openbsd.org/pkg_add.1):
318You can install `bat` using the [nix package manager](https://nixos.org/nix):
326You can install `bat` with zypper:
334There is currently no recommended snap package available.
335Existing packages may be available, but are not officially supported and may contain [issues](https://github.com/sharkdp/bat/issues/1519).
337### On macOS (or Linux) via Homebrew
339You can install `bat` with [Homebrew on MacOS](https://formulae.brew.sh/formula/bat) or [Homebrew on Linux](https://formulae.brew.sh/formula-linux/bat):
345### On macOS via MacPorts
347Or install `bat` with [MacPorts](https://ports.macports.org/port/bat/summary):
355There are a few options to install `bat` on Windows. Once you have installed `bat`,
356take a look at the ["Using `bat` on Windows"](#using-bat-on-windows) section.
360You will need to install the [Visual C++ Redistributable](https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/2977003/the-latest-supported-visual-c-downloads) package.
364You can install `bat` via [Chocolatey](https://chocolatey.org/packages/Bat):
371You can install `bat` via [scoop](https://scoop.sh/):
376#### From prebuilt binaries:
378You can download prebuilt binaries from the [Release page](https://github.com/sharkdp/bat/releases),
380You will need to install the [Visual C++ Redistributable](https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/2977003/the-latest-supported-visual-c-downloads) package.
384Check out the [Release page](https://github.com/sharkdp/bat/releases) for
385prebuilt versions of `bat` for many different architectures. Statically-linked
386binaries are also available: look for archives with `musl` in the file name.
390If you want to build `bat` from source, you need Rust 1.46 or
391higher. You can then use `cargo` to build everything:
394cargo install --locked bat
397Note that additional files like the man page or shell completion
398files can not be installed in this way. They will be generated by `cargo` and should be available in the cargo target folder (under `build`).
402### Highlighting theme
404Use `bat --list-themes` to get a list of all available themes for syntax
405highlighting. To select the `TwoDark` theme, call `bat` with the
406`--theme=TwoDark` option or set the `BAT_THEME` environment variable to
407`TwoDark`. Use `export BAT_THEME="TwoDark"` in your shell's startup file to
408make the change permanent. Alternatively, use `bat`s
409[configuration file](https://github.com/sharkdp/bat#configuration-file).
411If you want to preview the different themes on a custom file, you can use
412the following command (you need [`fzf`](https://github.com/junegunn/fzf) for this):
414bat --list-themes | fzf --preview="bat --theme={} --color=always /path/to/file"
417`bat` looks good on a dark background by default. However, if your terminal uses a
418light background, some themes like `GitHub` or `OneHalfLight` will work better for you.
419You can also use a custom theme by following the
420['Adding new themes' section below](https://github.com/sharkdp/bat#adding-new-themes).
424`bat` has three themes that always use [8-bit colors](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ANSI_escape_code#Colors),
425even when truecolor support is available:
427- `ansi` looks decent on any terminal. It uses 3-bit colors: black, red, green,
428 yellow, blue, magenta, cyan, and white.
429- `base16` is designed for [base16](https://github.com/chriskempson/base16) terminal themes. It uses
430 4-bit colors (3-bit colors plus bright variants) in accordance with the
431 [base16 styling guidelines](https://github.com/chriskempson/base16/blob/master/styling.md).
432- `base16-256` is designed for [base16-shell](https://github.com/chriskempson/base16-shell).
433 It replaces certain bright colors with 8-bit colors from 16 to 21. **Do not** use this simply
434 because you have a 256-color terminal but are not using base16-shell.
436Although these themes are more restricted, they have three advantages over truecolor themes. They:
438- Enjoy maximum compatibility. Some terminal utilities do not support more than 3-bit colors.
439- Adapt to terminal theme changes. Even for already printed output.
440- Visually harmonize better with other terminal software.
444You can use the `--style` option to control the appearance of `bat`s output.
445You can use `--style=numbers,changes`, for example, to show only Git changes
446and line numbers but no grid and no file header. Set the `BAT_STYLE` environment
447variable to make these changes permanent or use `bat`s
448[configuration file](https://github.com/sharkdp/bat#configuration-file).
450### Adding new syntaxes / language definitions
452Should you find that a particular syntax is not available within `bat`, you can follow these
453instructions to easily add new syntaxes to your current `bat` installation.
455`bat` uses the excellent [`syntect`](https://github.com/trishume/syntect/)
456library for syntax highlighting. `syntect` can read any
457[Sublime Text `.sublime-syntax` file](https://www.sublimetext.com/docs/3/syntax.html)
460A good resource for finding Sublime Syntax packages is [Package Control](https://packagecontrol.io/). Once you found a
4631. Create a folder with syntax definition files:
466 mkdir -p "$(bat --config-dir)/syntaxes"
467 cd "$(bat --config-dir)/syntaxes"
469 # Put new '.sublime-syntax' language definition files
470 # in this folder (or its subdirectories), for example:
471 git clone https://github.com/tellnobody1/sublime-purescript-syntax
4742. Now use the following command to parse these files into a binary cache:
4803. Finally, use `bat --list-languages` to check if the new languages are available.
482 If you ever want to go back to the default settings, call:
4884. If you think that a specific syntax should be included in `bat` by default, please
489 consider opening a "syntax request" ticket after reading the policies and
490 instructions [here](doc/assets.md): [Open Syntax Request](https://github.com/sharkdp/bat/issues/new?labels=syntax-request&template=syntax_request.md).
494This works very similar to how we add new syntax definitions.
496First, create a folder with the new syntax highlighting themes:
498mkdir -p "$(bat --config-dir)/themes"
499cd "$(bat --config-dir)/themes"
501# Download a theme in '.tmTheme' format, for example:
502git clone https://github.com/greggb/sublime-snazzy
504# Update the binary cache
508Finally, use `bat --list-themes` to check if the new themes are available.
510### Adding or changing file type associations
512You can add new (or change existing) file name patterns using the `--map-syntax`
513command line option. The option takes an argument of the form `pattern:syntax` where
514`pattern` is a glob pattern that is matched against the file name and
515the absolute file path. The `syntax` part is the full name of a supported language
516(use `bat --list-languages` for an overview).
518Note: You probably want to use this option as an entry in `bat`s configuration file instead
519of passing it on the command line (see below).
521Example: To use "INI" syntax highlighting for all files with a `.conf` file extension, use
523--map-syntax='*.conf:INI'
526Example: To open all files called `.ignore` (exact match) with the "Git Ignore" syntax, use:
528--map-syntax='.ignore:Git Ignore'
531Example: To open all `.conf` files in subfolders of `/etc/apache2` with the "Apache Conf"
532syntax, use (this mapping is already built in):
534--map-syntax='/etc/apache2/**/*.conf:Apache Conf'
537### Using a different pager
539`bat` uses the pager that is specified in the `PAGER` environment variable. If this variable is not
540set, `less` is used by default. If you want to use a different pager, you can either modify the
541`PAGER` variable or set the `BAT_PAGER` environment variable to override what is specified in
544**Note**: If `PAGER` is `more` or `most`, `bat` will silently use `less` instead to ensure support for colors.
546If you want to pass command-line arguments to the pager, you can also set them via the
547`PAGER`/`BAT_PAGER` variables:
550export BAT_PAGER="less -RF"
553Instead 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).
555**Note**: By default, if the pager is set to `less` (and no command-line options are specified),
556`bat` will pass the following command line options to the pager: `-R`/`--RAW-CONTROL-CHARS`,
557`-F`/`--quit-if-one-screen` and `-X`/`--no-init`. The last option (`-X`) is only used for `less`
558versions older than 530.
560The `-R` option is needed to interpret ANSI colors correctly. The second option (`-F`) instructs
561less to exit immediately if the output size is smaller than the vertical size of the terminal.
562This is convenient for small files because you do not have to press `q` to quit the pager. The
563third option (`-X`) is needed to fix a bug with the `--quit-if-one-screen` feature in old versions
564of `less`. Unfortunately, it also breaks mouse-wheel support in `less`.
566If you want to enable mouse-wheel scrolling on older versions of `less`, you can pass just `-R` (as
567in the example above, this will disable the quit-if-one-screen feature). For less 530 or newer,
568it should work out of the box.
572`bat` expands tabs to 4 spaces by itself, not relying on the pager. To change this, simply add the
573`--tabs` argument with the number of spaces you want to be displayed.
575**Note**: Defining tab stops for the pager (via the `--pager` argument by `bat`, or via the `LESS`
576environment variable for `less`) won't be taken into account because the pager will already get
577expanded spaces instead of tabs. This behaviour is added to avoid indentation issues caused by the
578sidebar. Calling `bat` with `--tabs=0` will override it and let tabs be consumed by the pager.
582If you make use of the dark mode feature in macOS, you might want to configure `bat` to use a different
583theme based on the OS theme. The following snippet uses the `default` theme when in the _dark mode_
584and the `GitHub` theme when in the _light mode_.
587alias cat="bat --theme=\$(defaults read -globalDomain AppleInterfaceStyle &> /dev/null && echo default || echo GitHub)"
593`bat` can also be customized with a configuration file. The location of the file is dependent
594on your operating system. To get the default path for your system, call
599Alternatively, you can use the `BAT_CONFIG_PATH` environment variable to point `bat` to a
600non-default location of the configuration file:
602export BAT_CONFIG_PATH="/path/to/bat.conf"
605A default configuration file can be created with the `--generate-config-file` option.
607bat --generate-config-file
612The 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.
614Example configuration file:
616# Set the theme to "TwoDark"
619# Show line numbers, Git modifications and file header (but no grid)
620--style="numbers,changes,header"
622# Use italic text on the terminal (not supported on all terminals)
625# Use C++ syntax for Arduino .ino files
626--map-syntax "*.ino:C++"
629## Using `bat` on Windows
631`bat` mostly works out-of-the-box on Windows, but a few features may need extra configuration.
635You will need to install the [Visual C++ Redistributable](https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/2977003/the-latest-supported-visual-c-downloads) package.
639Windows only includes a very limited pager in the form of `more`. You can download a Windows binary
640for `less` [from its homepage](http://www.greenwoodsoftware.com/less/download.html) or [through
641Chocolatey](https://chocolatey.org/packages/Less). To use it, place the binary in a directory in
642your `PATH` or [define an environment variable](#using-a-different-pager). The [Chocolatey package](#on-windows) installs `less` automatically.
646Windows 10 natively supports colors in both `conhost.exe` (Command Prompt) and PowerShell since
647[v1511](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windows_10_version_history#Version_1511_(November_Update)), as
648well as in newer versions of bash. On earlier versions of Windows, you can use
649[Cmder](http://cmder.net/), which includes [ConEmu](https://conemu.github.io/).
651**Note:** The Git and MSYS versions of `less` do not correctly interpret colors on Windows. If you
652don’t have any other pagers installed, you can disable paging entirely by passing `--paging=never`
653or by setting `BAT_PAGER` to an empty string.
657`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)`
659This can be solved by creating a wrapper or adding the following function to your `.bash_profile` file:
665 for index in $(seq 0 ${#args[@]}) ; do
666 case "${args[index]}" in
668 *) [ -e "${args[index]}" ] && args[index]="$(cygpath --windows "${args[index]}")";;
671 command bat "${args[@]}"
679If an input file contains color codes or other ANSI escape sequences, `bat` will have problems
680performing syntax highlighting and text wrapping, and thus the output can become garbled.
681When displaying such files it is recommended to disable both syntax highlighting and wrapping by
682passing the `--color=never --wrap=never` options to `bat`.
684### Terminals & colors
686`bat` handles terminals *with* and *without* truecolor support. However, the colors in most syntax
687highlighting themes are not optimized for 8-bit colors. It is therefore strongly recommended
688that you use a terminal with 24-bit truecolor support (`terminator`, `konsole`, `iTerm2`, ...),
689or use one of the basic [8-bit themes](#8-bit-themes) designed for a restricted set of colors.
690See [this article](https://gist.github.com/XVilka/8346728) for more details and a full list of
691terminals with truecolor support.
693Make sure that your truecolor terminal sets the `COLORTERM` variable to either `truecolor` or
694`24bit`. Otherwise, `bat` will not be able to determine whether or not 24-bit escape sequences
695are supported (and fall back to 8-bit colors).
697### Line numbers and grid are hardly visible
699Please try a different theme (see `bat --list-themes` for a list). The `OneHalfDark` and
700`OneHalfLight` themes provide grid and line colors that are brighter.
704`bat` natively supports UTF-8 as well as UTF-16. For every other file encoding, you may need to
705convert to UTF-8 first because the encodings can typically not be auto-detected. You can `iconv`
707Example: if you have a PHP file in Latin-1 (ISO-8859-1) encoding, you can call:
709iconv -f ISO-8859-1 -t UTF-8 my-file.php | bat
711Note: you might have to use the `-l`/`--language` option if the syntax can not be auto-detected
717# Recursive clone to retrieve all submodules
718git clone --recursive https://github.com/sharkdp/bat
720# Build (debug version)
724# Run unit tests and integration tests
727# Install (release version)
728cargo install --path . --locked
730# Build a bat binary with modified syntaxes and themes
732cargo install --path . --locked --force
735If you want to build an application that uses `bat`s pretty-printing
736features as a library, check out the [the API documentation](https://docs.rs/bat/).
737Note that you have to use either `regex-onig` or `regex-fancy` as a feature
738when you depend on `bat` as a library.
742Take a look at the [`CONTRIBUTING.md`](CONTRIBUTING.md) guide.
746- [sharkdp](https://github.com/sharkdp)
747- [eth-p](https://github.com/eth-p)
748- [keith-hall](https://github.com/keith-hall)
749- [Enselic](https://github.com/Enselic)
751## Security vulnerabilities
753Please contact [David Peter](https://david-peter.de/) via email if you want to report a vulnerability in `bat`.
755## Project goals and alternatives
757`bat` tries to achieve the following goals:
759- Provide beautiful, advanced syntax highlighting
760- Integrate with Git to show file modifications
761- Be a drop-in replacement for (POSIX) `cat`
762- Offer a user-friendly command-line interface
764There are a lot of alternatives, if you are looking for similar programs. See
765[this document](doc/alternatives.md) for a comparison.
768Copyright (c) 2018-2021 [bat-developers](https://github.com/sharkdp/bat).
770`bat` is made available under the terms of either the MIT License or the Apache License 2.0, at your option.
772See the [LICENSE-APACHE](LICENSE-APACHE) and [LICENSE-MIT](LICENSE-MIT) files for license details.
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