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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://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.
7</p>
9<p align="center">
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>
15 [<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>]
16</p>
18### Syntax highlighting
20`bat` supports syntax highlighting for a large number of programming and markup
21languages:
23![Syntax highlighting example](https://imgur.com/rGsdnDe.png)
25### Git integration
27`bat` communicates with `git` to show modifications with respect to the index
28(see left side bar):
30![Git integration example](https://i.imgur.com/2lSW4RE.png)
32### Show non-printable characters
34You can use the `-A`/`--show-all` option to show and highlight non-printable
35characters:
37![Non-printable character example](https://i.imgur.com/WndGp9H.png)
39### Automatic paging
41`bat` can pipe its own output to `less` if the output is too large for one screen.
43### File concatenation
45Oh.. you can also use it to concatenate files :wink:. Whenever
46`bat` detects a non-interactive terminal (i.e. when you pipe into another process
47or into a file), `bat` will act as a drop-in replacement for `cat` and
48fall back to printing the plain file contents.
50## How to use
52Display a single file on the terminal
54```bash
55> bat README.md
56```
58Display multiple files at once
60```bash
61> bat src/*.rs
62```
64Read from stdin, determine the syntax automatically (note, highlighting will
65only work if the syntax can be determined from the first line of the file,
66usually through a shebang such as `#!/bin/sh`)
68```bash
69> curl -s https://sh.rustup.rs | bat
70```
72Read from stdin, specify the language explicitly
74```bash
75> yaml2json .travis.yml | json_pp | bat -l json
76```
78Show and highlight non-printable characters:
79```bash
80> bat -A /etc/hosts
81```
83Use it as a `cat` replacement:
85```bash
86bat > note.md # quickly create a new file
88bat header.md content.md footer.md > document.md
90bat -n main.rs # show line numbers (only)
92bat f - g # output 'f', then stdin, then 'g'.
93```
95### Integration with other tools
97#### `find` or `fd`
99You can use the `-exec` option of `find` to preview all search results with `bat`:
100```bash
101find … -exec bat {} +
102```
104If you happen to use [`fd`](https://github.com/sharkdp/fd), you can use the `-X`/`--exec-batch` option to do the same:
105```bash
106fd … -X bat
107```
109#### `ripgrep`
111With [`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.
113```bash
114batgrep needle src/
115```
117#### `tail -f`
119`bat` can be combined with `tail -f` to continuously monitor a given file with syntax highlighting.
120```bash
121tail -f /var/log/pacman.log | bat --paging=never -l log
122```
123Note that we have to switch off paging in order for this to work. We have also specified the syntax
124explicitly (`-l log`), as it can not be auto-detected in this case.
126#### `git`
128You can combine `bat` with `git show` to view an older version of a given file with proper syntax
129highlighting:
130```bash
131git show v0.6.0:src/main.rs | bat -l rs
132```
134Note that syntax highlighting within diffs is currently not supported. If you are looking for this, check out [`delta`](https://github.com/dandavison/delta).
136#### `xclip`
138The line numbers and Git modification markers in the output of `bat` can make it hard to copy
139the contents of a file. To prevent this, you can call `bat` with the `-p`/`--plain` option or
140simply pipe the output into `xclip`:
141```bash
142bat main.cpp | xclip
143```
144`bat` will detect that the output is being redirected and print the plain file contents.
146#### `man`
148`bat` can be used as a colorizing pager for `man`, by setting the
149`MANPAGER` environment variable:
151```bash
152export MANPAGER="sh -c 'col -bx | bat -l man -p'"
153man 2 select
154```
156It might also be necessary to set `MANROFFOPT="-c"` if you experience
157formatting problems.
159If 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).
161Note that the [Manpage syntax](assets/syntaxes/02_Extra/Manpage.sublime-syntax) is developed in this repository and still needs some work.
163#### `prettier` / `shfmt` / `rustfmt`
165The [`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`.
168## Installation
170[![Packaging status](https://repology.org/badge/vertical-allrepos/bat.svg)](https://repology.org/project/bat/versions)
172### On Ubuntu (using `apt`)
173*... and other Debian-based Linux distributions.*
175`bat` is making its way through the [Ubuntu](https://packages.ubuntu.com/eoan/bat) and
176[Debian](https://packages.debian.org/sid/bat) package release process, and is available
177for Ubuntu as of Eoan 19.10. On Debian `bat` is currently only available on the unstable
178"Sid" branch.
180If your Ubuntu/Debian installation is new enough you can simply run:
182```bash
183apt install bat
184```
186If you install `bat` this way, please note that the executable may be installed as `batcat` instead of `bat` (due to [a name
187clash 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:
188``` bash
189mkdir -p ~/.local/bin
190ln -s /usr/bin/batcat ~/.local/bin/bat
191```
193### On Ubuntu (using most recent `.deb` packages)
194*... and other Debian-based Linux distributions.*
196If the package has not yet been promoted to your Ubuntu/Debian installation, or you want
197the most recent release of `bat`, download the latest `.deb` package from the
198[release page](https://github.com/sharkdp/bat/releases) and install it via:
200```bash
201sudo dpkg -i bat_0.15.4_amd64.deb # adapt version number and architecture
202```
204### On Alpine Linux
206You can install [the `bat` package](https://pkgs.alpinelinux.org/packages?name=bat)
207from the official sources, provided you have the appropriate repository enabled:
209```bash
210apk add bat
211```
213### On Arch Linux
215You can install [the `bat` package](https://www.archlinux.org/packages/community/x86_64/bat/)
216from the official sources:
218```bash
219pacman -S bat
220```
222### On Fedora
224You 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.
226```bash
227dnf install bat
228```
230### On Gentoo Linux
232You can install [the `bat` package](https://packages.gentoo.org/packages/sys-apps/bat)
233from the official sources:
235```bash
236emerge sys-apps/bat
237```
239### On Void Linux
241You can install `bat` via xbps-install:
242```bash
243xbps-install -S bat
244```
246### On FreeBSD
248You can install a precompiled [`bat` package](https://www.freshports.org/textproc/bat) with pkg:
250```bash
251pkg install bat
252```
254or build it on your own from the FreeBSD ports:
256```bash
257cd /usr/ports/textproc/bat
258make install
259```
261### Via nix
263You can install `bat` using the [nix package manager](https://nixos.org/nix):
265```bash
266nix-env -i bat
267```
269### On openSUSE
271You can install `bat` with zypper:
273```bash
274zypper install bat
275```
277### On macOS
279You can install `bat` with [Homebrew](http://braumeister.org/formula/bat):
281```bash
282brew install bat
283```
285Or install `bat` with [MacPorts](https://ports.macports.org/port/bat/summary):
287```bash
288port install bat
289```
291### On Windows
293There are a few options to install `bat` on Windows. Once you have installed `bat`,
294take a look at the ["Using `bat` on Windows"](#using-bat-on-windows) section.
296#### Prerequisites
298You will need to install the [Visual C++ Redistributable](https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/2977003/the-latest-supported-visual-c-downloads) package.
300#### With Chocolatey
302You can install `bat` via [Chocolatey](https://chocolatey.org/packages/Bat):
303```bash
304choco install bat
305```
307#### With Scoop
309You can install `bat` via [scoop](https://scoop.sh/):
310```bash
311scoop install bat
312```
314#### From prebuilt binaries:
316You can download prebuilt binaries from the [Release page](https://github.com/sharkdp/bat/releases),
318You will need to install the [Visual C++ Redistributable](https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/2977003/the-latest-supported-visual-c-downloads) package.
320### From binaries
322Check out the [Release page](https://github.com/sharkdp/bat/releases) for
323prebuilt versions of `bat` for many different architectures. Statically-linked
324binaries are also available: look for archives with `musl` in the file name.
326### From source
328If you want to build `bat` from source, you need Rust 1.40 or
329higher. You can then use `cargo` to build everything:
331```bash
332cargo install --locked bat
333```
335## Customization
337### Highlighting theme
339Use `bat --list-themes` to get a list of all available themes for syntax
340highlighting. To select the `TwoDark` theme, call `bat` with the
341`--theme=TwoDark` option or set the `BAT_THEME` environment variable to
342`TwoDark`. Use `export BAT_THEME="TwoDark"` in your shell's startup file to
343make the change permanent. Alternatively, use `bat`s
344[configuration file](https://github.com/sharkdp/bat#configuration-file).
346If you want to preview the different themes on a custom file, you can use
347the following command (you need [`fzf`](https://github.com/junegunn/fzf) for this):
348```bash
349bat --list-themes | fzf --preview="bat --theme={} --color=always /path/to/file"
350```
352`bat` looks good on a dark background by default. However, if your terminal uses a
353light background, some themes like `GitHub` or `OneHalfLight` will work better for you.
354You can also use a custom theme by following the
355['Adding new themes' section below](https://github.com/sharkdp/bat#adding-new-themes).
357### 8-bit themes
359`bat` has four themes that always use [8-bit colors](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ANSI_escape_code#Colors),
360even when truecolor support is available:
362- `ansi-dark` looks decent on any terminal with a dark background. It uses 3-bit colors: black, red,
363 green, yellow, blue, magenta, cyan, and white.
364- `ansi-light` is like `ansi-dark`, but for terminals with a light background.
365- `base16` is designed for [base16](https://github.com/chriskempson/base16) terminal themes. It uses
366 4-bit colors (3-bit colors plus bright variants) in accordance with the
367 [base16 styling guidelines](https://github.com/chriskempson/base16/blob/master/styling.md).
368- `base16-256` is designed for [base16-shell](https://github.com/chriskempson/base16-shell).
369 It replaces certain bright colors with 8-bit colors from 16 to 21. **Do not** use this simply
370 because you have a 256-color terminal but are not using base16-shell.
372Although these themes are more restricted, they have two advantages over truecolor themes:
374- They harmonize better with other terminal software using 3-bit or 4-bit colors.
375- When you change your terminal theme, `bat` output already on the screen will update to match.
377### Output style
379You can use the `--style` option to control the appearance of `bat`s output.
380You can use `--style=numbers,changes`, for example, to show only Git changes
381and line numbers but no grid and no file header. Set the `BAT_STYLE` environment
382variable to make these changes permanent or use `bat`s
383[configuration file](https://github.com/sharkdp/bat#configuration-file).
385### Adding new syntaxes / language definitions
387`bat` uses the excellent [`syntect`](https://github.com/trishume/syntect/)
388library for syntax highlighting. `syntect` can read any
389[Sublime Text `.sublime-syntax` file](https://www.sublimetext.com/docs/3/syntax.html)
390and theme. To add new syntax definitions, do the following.
392Create a folder with syntax definition files:
394```bash
395mkdir -p "$(bat --config-dir)/syntaxes"
396cd "$(bat --config-dir)/syntaxes"
398# Put new '.sublime-syntax' language definition files
399# in this folder (or its subdirectories), for example:
400git clone https://github.com/tellnobody1/sublime-purescript-syntax
401```
403Now use the following command to parse these files into a binary cache:
405```bash
406bat cache --build
407```
409Finally, use `bat --list-languages` to check if the new languages are available.
411If you ever want to go back to the default settings, call:
413```bash
414bat cache --clear
415```
417### Adding new themes
419This works very similar to how we add new syntax definitions.
421First, create a folder with the new syntax highlighting themes:
422```bash
423mkdir -p "$(bat --config-dir)/themes"
424cd "$(bat --config-dir)/themes"
426# Download a theme in '.tmTheme' format, for example:
427git clone https://github.com/greggb/sublime-snazzy
429# Update the binary cache
430bat cache --build
431```
433Finally, use `bat --list-themes` to check if the new themes are available.
435### Using a different pager
437`bat` uses the pager that is specified in the `PAGER` environment variable. If this variable is not
438set, `less` is used by default. If you want to use a different pager, you can either modify the
439`PAGER` variable or set the `BAT_PAGER` environment variable to override what is specified in
440`PAGER`.
442If you want to pass command-line arguments to the pager, you can also set them via the
443`PAGER`/`BAT_PAGER` variables:
445```bash
446export BAT_PAGER="less -RF"
447```
449Instead 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).
451**Note**: By default, if the pager is set to `less` (and no command-line options are specified),
452`bat` will pass the following command line options to the pager: `-R`/`--RAW-CONTROL-CHARS`,
453`-F`/`--quit-if-one-screen` and `-X`/`--no-init`. The last option (`-X`) is only used for `less`
454versions older than 530.
456The `-R` option is needed to interpret ANSI colors correctly. The second option (`-F`) instructs
457less to exit immediately if the output size is smaller than the vertical size of the terminal.
458This is convenient for small files because you do not have to press `q` to quit the pager. The
459third option (`-X`) is needed to fix a bug with the `--quit-if-one-screen` feature in old versions
460of `less`. Unfortunately, it also breaks mouse-wheel support in `less`.
462If you want to enable mouse-wheel scrolling on older versions of `less`, you can pass just `-R` (as
463in the example above, this will disable the quit-if-one-screen feature). For less 530 or newer,
464it should work out of the box.
466### Indentation
468`bat` expands tabs to 4 spaces by itself, not relying on the pager. To change this, simply add the
469`--tabs` argument with the number of spaces you want to be displayed.
471**Note**: Defining tab stops for the pager (via the `--pager` argument by `bat`, or via the `LESS`
472environment variable for `less`) won't be taken into account because the pager will already get
473expanded spaces instead of tabs. This behaviour is added to avoid indentation issues caused by the
474sidebar. Calling `bat` with `--tabs=0` will override it and let tabs be consumed by the pager.
476### Dark mode
478If you make use of the dark mode feature in macOS, you might want to configure `bat` to use a different
479theme based on the OS theme. The following snippet uses the `default` theme when in the _dark mode_
480and the `GitHub` theme when in the _light mode_.
482```bash
483alias cat="bat --theme=\$(defaults read -globalDomain AppleInterfaceStyle &> /dev/null && echo default || echo GitHub)"
484```
486## Configuration file
488`bat` can also be customized with a configuration file. The location of the file is dependent
489on your operating system. To get the default path for your system, call
490```
491bat --config-file
492```
494Alternatively, you can use the `BAT_CONFIG_PATH` environment variable to point `bat` to a
495non-default location of the configuration file:
496```bash
497export BAT_CONFIG_PATH="/path/to/bat.conf"
498```
500A default configuration file can be created with the `--generate-config-file` option.
501```bash
502bat --generate-config-file
503```
505### Format
507The 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.
509Example configuration file:
510```bash
511# Set the theme to "TwoDark"
512--theme="TwoDark"
514# Show line numbers, Git modifications and file header (but no grid)
515--style="numbers,changes,header"
517# Use italic text on the terminal (not supported on all terminals)
518--italic-text=always
520# Use C++ syntax for .ino files
521--map-syntax "*.ino:C++"
523# Use ".gitignore"-style highlighting for ".ignore" files
524--map-syntax ".ignore:Git Ignore"
525```
527## Using `bat` on Windows
529`bat` mostly works out-of-the-box on Windows, but a few features may need extra configuration.
531### Prerequisites
533You will need to install the [Visual C++ Redistributable](https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/2977003/the-latest-supported-visual-c-downloads) package.
535### Paging
537Windows only includes a very limited pager in the form of `more`. You can download a Windows binary
538for `less` [from its homepage](http://www.greenwoodsoftware.com/less/download.html) or [through
539Chocolatey](https://chocolatey.org/packages/Less). To use it, place the binary in a directory in
540your `PATH` or [define an environment variable](#using-a-different-pager). The [Chocolatey package](#on-windows) installs `less` automatically.
542### Colors
544Windows 10 natively supports colors in both `conhost.exe` (Command Prompt) and PowerShell since
545[v1511](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windows_10_version_history#Version_1511_(November_Update)), as
546well as in newer versions of bash. On earlier versions of Windows, you can use
547[Cmder](http://cmder.net/), which includes [ConEmu](https://conemu.github.io/).
549**Note:** The Git and MSYS versions of `less` do not correctly interpret colors on Windows. If you
550don’t have any other pagers installed, you can disable paging entirely by passing `--paging=never`
551or by setting `BAT_PAGER` to an empty string.
553### Cygwin
555`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)`
557This can be solved by creating a wrapper or adding the following function to your `.bash_profile` file:
559```bash
560bat() {
561 local index
562 local args=("$@")
563 for index in $(seq 0 ${#args[@]}) ; do
564 case "${args[index]}" in
565 -*) continue;;
566 *) [ -e "${args[index]}" ] && args[index]="$(cygpath --windows "${args[index]}")";;
567 esac
568 done
569 command bat "${args[@]}"
571```
573## Troubleshooting
575### Terminals & colors
577`bat` handles terminals *with* and *without* truecolor support. However, the colors in most syntax
578highlighting themes are not optimized for 8-bit colors. It is therefore strongly recommended
579that you use a terminal with 24-bit truecolor support (`terminator`, `konsole`, `iTerm2`, ...),
580or use one of the basic [8-bit themes](#8-bit-themes) designed for a restricted set of colors.
581See [this article](https://gist.github.com/XVilka/8346728) for more details and a full list of
582terminals with truecolor support.
584Make sure that your truecolor terminal sets the `COLORTERM` variable to either `truecolor` or
585`24bit`. Otherwise, `bat` will not be able to determine whether or not 24-bit escape sequences
586are supported (and fall back to 8-bit colors).
588### Line numbers and grid are hardly visible
590Please try a different theme (see `bat --list-themes` for a list). The `OneHalfDark` and
591`OneHalfLight` themes provide grid and line colors that are brighter.
593### File encodings
595`bat` natively supports UTF-8 as well as UTF-16. For every other file encoding, you may need to
596convert to UTF-8 first because the encodings can typically not be auto-detected. You can `iconv`
597to do so.
598Example: if you have a PHP file in Latin-1 (ISO-8859-1) encoding, you can call:
599``` bash
600iconv -f ISO-8859-1 -t UTF-8 my-file.php | bat
601```
602Note: you might have to use the `-l`/`--language` option if the syntax can not be auto-detected
603by `bat`.
605## Development
607```bash
608# Recursive clone to retrieve all submodules
609git clone --recursive https://github.com/sharkdp/bat
611# Build (debug version)
612cd bat
613cargo build --bins
615# Run unit tests and integration tests
616cargo test
618# Install (release version)
619cargo install --locked
621# Build a bat binary with modified syntaxes and themes
622bash assets/create.sh
623cargo install --locked --force
624```
626## Maintainers
628- [sharkdp](https://github.com/sharkdp)
629- [eth-p](https://github.com/eth-p)
631## Project goals and alternatives
633`bat` tries to achieve the following goals:
635- Provide beautiful, advanced syntax highlighting
636- Integrate with Git to show file modifications
637- Be a drop-in replacement for (POSIX) `cat`
638- Offer a user-friendly command-line interface
640There are a lot of alternatives, if you are looking for similar programs. See
641[this document](doc/alternatives.md) for a comparison.
643## License
644Copyright (c) 2018-2020 [bat-developers](https://github.com/sharkdp/bat).
646`bat` is distributed under the terms of both the MIT License and the Apache License 2.0.
648See the [LICENSE-APACHE](LICENSE-APACHE) and [LICENSE-MIT](LICENSE-MIT) files for license details.