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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> •
16 Translation [<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>]
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
67```bash
68> curl -s https://sh.rustup.rs | bat
69```
71Read from stdin, specify the language explicitly
73```bash
74> yaml2json .travis.yml | json_pp | bat -l json
75```
77Show and highlight non-printable characters:
78```bash
79> bat -A /etc/hosts
80```
82Use it as a `cat` replacement:
84```bash
85bat > note.md # quickly create a new file
87bat header.md content.md footer.md > document.md
89bat -n main.rs # show line numbers (only)
91bat f - g # output 'f', then stdin, then 'g'.
92```
94### Integration with other tools
96#### `find` or `fd`
98You can use the `-exec` option of `find` to preview all search results with `bat`:
99```bash
100find … -exec bat {} +
101```
103If you happen to use [`fd`](https://github.com/sharkdp/fd), you can use the `-X`/`--exec-batch` option to do the same:
104```bash
105fd … -X bat
106```
108#### `ripgrep`
110With [`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.
112```bash
113batgrep needle src/
114```
116#### `tail -f`
118`bat` can be combined with `tail -f` to continuously monitor a given file with syntax highlighting.
119```bash
120tail -f /var/log/pacman.log | bat --paging=never -l log
121```
122Note that we have to switch off paging in order for this to work. We have also specified the syntax
123explicitly (`-l log`), as it can not be auto-detected in this case.
125#### `git`
127You can combine `bat` with `git show` to view an older version of a given file with proper syntax
128highlighting:
129```bash
130git show v0.6.0:src/main.rs | bat -l rs
131```
133Note that syntax highlighting within diffs is currently not supported. If you are looking for this, check out [`delta`](https://github.com/dandavison/delta).
135#### `xclip`
137The line numbers and Git modification markers in the output of `bat` can make it hard to copy
138the contents of a file. To prevent this, you can call `bat` with the `-p`/`--plain` option or
139simply pipe the output into `xclip`:
140```bash
141bat main.cpp | xclip
142```
143`bat` will detect that the output is being redirected and print the plain file contents.
145#### `man`
147`bat` can be used as a colorizing pager for `man`, by setting the
148`MANPAGER` environment variable:
150```bash
151export MANPAGER="sh -c 'col -bx | bat -l man -p'"
152man 2 select
153```
155It might also be necessary to set `MANROFFOPT="-c"` if you experience
156formatting problems.
158If 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).
160Note that the [Manpage syntax](assets/syntaxes/02_Extra/Manpage.sublime-syntax) is developed in this repository and still needs some work.
162#### `prettier` / `shfmt` / `rustfmt`
164The [`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`.
167## Installation
169[![Packaging status](https://repology.org/badge/vertical-allrepos/bat.svg)](https://repology.org/project/bat/versions)
171### On Ubuntu (using `apt`)
172*... and other Debian-based Linux distributions.*
174`bat` is making its way through the [Ubuntu](https://packages.ubuntu.com/eoan/bat) and
175[Debian](https://packages.debian.org/sid/bat) package release process, and is available
176for Ubuntu as of Eoan 19.10. On Debian `bat` is currently only available on the unstable
177"Sid" branch.
179If your Ubuntu/Debian installation is new enough you can simply run:
181```bash
182apt install bat
183```
185If you install `bat` this way, please note that the executable may be installed as `batcat` instead of `bat` (due to [a name
186clash 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 distrutions:
187``` bash
188mkdir -p ~/.local/bin
189ln -s /usr/bin/batcat ~/.local/bin/bat
190```
192### On Ubuntu (using most recent `.deb` packages)
193*... and other Debian-based Linux distributions.*
195If the package has not yet been promoted to your Ubuntu/Debian installation, or you want
196the most recent release of `bat`, download the latest `.deb` package from the
197[release page](https://github.com/sharkdp/bat/releases) and install it via:
199```bash
200sudo dpkg -i bat_0.15.4_amd64.deb # adapt version number and architecture
201```
203### On Alpine Linux
205You can install [the `bat` package](https://pkgs.alpinelinux.org/packages?name=bat)
206from the official sources, provided you have the appropriate repository enabled:
208```bash
209apk add bat
210```
212### On Arch Linux
214You can install [the `bat` package](https://www.archlinux.org/packages/community/x86_64/bat/)
215from the official sources:
217```bash
218pacman -S bat
219```
221### On Fedora
223You 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.
225```bash
226dnf install bat
227```
229### On Gentoo Linux
231You can install [the `bat` package](https://packages.gentoo.org/packages/sys-apps/bat)
232from the official sources:
234```bash
235emerge sys-apps/bat
236```
238### On Void Linux
240You can install `bat` via xbps-install:
241```bash
242xbps-install -S bat
243```
245### On FreeBSD
247You can install a precompiled [`bat` package](https://www.freshports.org/textproc/bat) with pkg:
249```bash
250pkg install bat
251```
253or build it on your own from the FreeBSD ports:
255```bash
256cd /usr/ports/textproc/bat
257make install
258```
260### Via nix
262You can install `bat` using the [nix package manager](https://nixos.org/nix):
264```bash
265nix-env -i bat
266```
268### On openSUSE
270You can install `bat` with zypper:
272```bash
273zypper install bat
274```
276### On macOS
278You can install `bat` with [Homebrew](http://braumeister.org/formula/bat):
280```bash
281brew install bat
282```
284Or install `bat` with [MacPorts](https://ports.macports.org/port/bat/summary):
286```bash
287port install bat
288```
290### On Windows
292There are a few options to install `bat` on Windows. Once you have installed `bat`,
293take a look at the ["Using `bat` on Windows"](#using-bat-on-windows) section.
295#### With Chocolatey
297You can install `bat` via [Chocolatey](https://chocolatey.org/packages/Bat):
298```bash
299choco install bat
300```
302#### With Scoop
304You can install `bat` via [scoop](https://scoop.sh/):
305```bash
306scoop install bat
307```
309You will need to install the [Visual C++ Redistributable](https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/2977003/the-latest-supported-visual-c-downloads) package.
311#### From prebuilt binaries:
313You can download prebuilt binaries from the [Release page](https://github.com/sharkdp/bat/releases),
315You will need to install the [Visual C++ Redistributable](https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/2977003/the-latest-supported-visual-c-downloads) package.
317### Via Docker
319There is a [Docker image](https://hub.docker.com/r/danlynn/bat/) that you can use to run `bat` in a container:
320```bash
321docker pull danlynn/bat
322alias bat='docker run -it --rm -e BAT_THEME -e BAT_STYLE -e BAT_TABS -v "$(pwd):/myapp" danlynn/bat'
323```
325### Via Ansible
327You can install `bat` with [Ansible](https://www.ansible.com/):
329```bash
330# Install role on local machine
331ansible-galaxy install aeimer.install_bat
332```
334```yaml
335---
336# Playbook to install bat
337- host: all
338 roles:
339 - aeimer.install_bat
340```
342- [Ansible Galaxy](https://galaxy.ansible.com/aeimer/install_bat)
343- [GitHub](https://github.com/aeimer/ansible-install-bat)
345This should work with the following distributions:
346- Debian/Ubuntu
347- ARM (eg. Raspberry PI)
348- Arch Linux
349- Void Linux
350- FreeBSD
351- MacOS
353### From binaries
355Check out the [Release page](https://github.com/sharkdp/bat/releases) for
356prebuilt versions of `bat` for many different architectures. Statically-linked
357binaries are also available: look for archives with `musl` in the file name.
359### From source
361If you want to build `bat` from source, you need Rust 1.40 or
362higher. You can then use `cargo` to build everything:
364```bash
365cargo install --locked bat
366```
368## Customization
370### Highlighting theme
372Use `bat --list-themes` to get a list of all available themes for syntax
373highlighting. To select the `TwoDark` theme, call `bat` with the
374`--theme=TwoDark` option or set the `BAT_THEME` environment variable to
375`TwoDark`. Use `export BAT_THEME="TwoDark"` in your shell's startup file to
376make the change permanent. Alternatively, use `bat`s
377[configuration file](https://github.com/sharkdp/bat#configuration-file).
379If you want to preview the different themes on a custom file, you can use
380the following command (you need [`fzf`](https://github.com/junegunn/fzf) for this):
381```bash
382bat --list-themes | fzf --preview="bat --theme={} --color=always /path/to/file"
383```
385`bat` looks good on a dark background by default. However, if your terminal uses a
386light background, some themes like `GitHub` or `OneHalfLight` will work better for you.
387You can also use a custom theme by following the
388['Adding new themes' section below](https://github.com/sharkdp/bat#adding-new-themes).
390### Output style
392You can use the `--style` option to control the appearance of `bat`s output.
393You can use `--style=numbers,changes`, for example, to show only Git changes
394and line numbers but no grid and no file header. Set the `BAT_STYLE` environment
395variable to make these changes permanent or use `bat`s
396[configuration file](https://github.com/sharkdp/bat#configuration-file).
398### Adding new syntaxes / language definitions
400`bat` uses the excellent [`syntect`](https://github.com/trishume/syntect/)
401library for syntax highlighting. `syntect` can read any
402[Sublime Text `.sublime-syntax` file](https://www.sublimetext.com/docs/3/syntax.html)
403and theme. To add new syntax definitions, do the following.
405Create a folder with syntax definition files:
407```bash
408mkdir -p "$(bat --config-dir)/syntaxes"
409cd "$(bat --config-dir)/syntaxes"
411# Put new '.sublime-syntax' language definition files
412# in this folder (or its subdirectories), for example:
413git clone https://github.com/tellnobody1/sublime-purescript-syntax
414```
416Now use the following command to parse these files into a binary cache:
418```bash
419bat cache --build
420```
422Finally, use `bat --list-languages` to check if the new languages are available.
424If you ever want to go back to the default settings, call:
426```bash
427bat cache --clear
428```
430### Adding new themes
432This works very similar to how we add new syntax definitions.
434First, create a folder with the new syntax highlighting themes:
435```bash
436mkdir -p "$(bat --config-dir)/themes"
437cd "$(bat --config-dir)/themes"
439# Download a theme in '.tmTheme' format, for example:
440git clone https://github.com/greggb/sublime-snazzy
442# Update the binary cache
443bat cache --build
444```
446Finally, use `bat --list-themes` to check if the new themes are available.
448### Using a different pager
450`bat` uses the pager that is specified in the `PAGER` environment variable. If this variable is not
451set, `less` is used by default. If you want to use a different pager, you can either modify the
452`PAGER` variable or set the `BAT_PAGER` environment variable to override what is specified in
453`PAGER`.
455If you want to pass command-line arguments to the pager, you can also set them via the
456`PAGER`/`BAT_PAGER` variables:
458```bash
459export BAT_PAGER="less -RF"
460```
462Instead 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).
464**Note**: By default, if the pager is set to `less` (and no command-line options are specified),
465`bat` will pass the following command line options to the pager: `-R`/`--RAW-CONTROL-CHARS`,
466`-F`/`--quit-if-one-screen` and `-X`/`--no-init`. The last option (`-X`) is only used for `less`
467versions older than 530.
469The `-R` option is needed to interpret ANSI colors correctly. The second option (`-F`) instructs
470less to exit immediately if the output size is smaller than the vertical size of the terminal.
471This is convenient for small files because you do not have to press `q` to quit the pager. The
472third option (`-X`) is needed to fix a bug with the `--quit-if-one-screen` feature in old versions
473of `less`. Unfortunately, it also breaks mouse-wheel support in `less`.
475If you want to enable mouse-wheel scrolling on older versions of `less`, you can pass just `-R` (as
476in the example above, this will disable the quit-if-one-screen feature). For less 530 or newer,
477it should work out of the box.
479### Dark mode
481If you make use of the dark mode feature in macOS, you might want to configure `bat` to use a different
482theme based on the OS theme. The following snippet uses the `default` theme when in the _dark mode_
483and the `GitHub` theme when in the _light mode_.
485```bash
486alias cat="bat --theme=\$(defaults read -globalDomain AppleInterfaceStyle &> /dev/null && echo default || echo GitHub)"
487```
489## Configuration file
491`bat` can also be customized with a configuration file. The location of the file is dependent
492on your operating system. To get the default path for your system, call
493```
494bat --config-file
495```
497Alternatively, you can use the `BAT_CONFIG_PATH` environment variable to point `bat` to a
498non-default location of the configuration file:
499```bash
500export BAT_CONFIG_PATH="/path/to/bat.conf"
501```
503A default configuration file can be created with the `--generate-config-file` option.
504```bash
505bat --generate-config-file
506```
508### Format
510The 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.
512Example configuration file:
513```bash
514# Set the theme to "TwoDark"
515--theme="TwoDark"
517# Show line numbers, Git modifications and file header (but no grid)
518--style="numbers,changes,header"
520# Use italic text on the terminal (not supported on all terminals)
521--italic-text=always
523# Use C++ syntax for .ino files
524--map-syntax "*.ino:C++"
526# Use ".gitignore"-style highlighting for ".ignore" files
527--map-syntax ".ignore:Git Ignore"
528```
530## Using `bat` on Windows
532`bat` mostly works out-of-the-box on Windows, but a few features may need extra configuration.
534### Paging
536Windows only includes a very limited pager in the form of `more`. You can download a Windows binary
537for `less` [from its homepage](http://www.greenwoodsoftware.com/less/download.html) or [through
538Chocolatey](https://chocolatey.org/packages/Less). To use it, place the binary in a directory in
539your `PATH` or [define an environment variable](#using-a-different-pager). The [Chocolatey package](#on-windows) installs `less` automatically.
541### Colors
543Windows 10 natively supports colors in both `conhost.exe` (Command Prompt) and PowerShell since
544[v1511](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windows_10_version_history#Version_1511_(November_Update)), as
545well as in newer versions of bash. On earlier versions of Windows, you can use
546[Cmder](http://cmder.net/), which includes [ConEmu](https://conemu.github.io/).
548**Note:** The Git and MSYS versions of `less` do not correctly interpret colors on Windows. If you
549don’t have any other pagers installed, you can disable paging entirely by passing `--paging=never`
550or by setting `BAT_PAGER` to an empty string.
552### Cygwin
554`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)`
556This can be solved by creating a wrapper or adding the following function to your `.bash_profile` file:
558```bash
559bat() {
560 local index
561 local args=("$@")
562 for index in $(seq 0 ${#args[@]}) ; do
563 case "${args[index]}" in
564 -*) continue;;
565 *) [ -e "${args[index]}" ] && args[index]="$(cygpath --windows "${args[index]}")";;
566 esac
567 done
568 command bat "${args[@]}"
570```
572## Troubleshooting
574### Terminals & colors
576`bat` handles terminals *with* and *without* truecolor support. However, the colors in the syntax
577highlighting themes are not optimized for 8-bit colors and it is therefore strongly recommended
578that you use a terminal with 24-bit truecolor support (`terminator`, `konsole`, `iTerm2`, ...).
579See [this article](https://gist.github.com/XVilka/8346728) for more details and a full list of
580terminals with truecolor support.
582Make sure that your truecolor terminal sets the `COLORTERM` variable to either `truecolor` or
583`24bit`. Otherwise, `bat` will not be able to determine whether or not 24-bit escape sequences
584are supported (and fall back to 8-bit colors).
586### Line numbers and grid are hardly visible
588Please try a different theme (see `bat --list-themes` for a list). The `OneHalfDark` and
589`OneHalfLight` themes provide grid and line colors that are brighter.
591### File encodings
593`bat` natively supports UTF-8 as well as UTF-16. For every other file encoding, you may need to
594convert to UTF-8 first because the encodings can typically not be auto-detected. You can `iconv`
595to do so.
596Example: if you have a PHP file in Latin-1 (ISO-8859-1) encoding, you can call:
597``` bash
598iconv -f ISO-8859-1 -t UTF-8 my-file.php | bat
599```
600Note: you might have to use the `-l`/`--language` option if the syntax can not be auto-detected
601by `bat`.
603## Development
605```bash
606# Recursive clone to retrieve all submodules
607git clone --recursive https://github.com/sharkdp/bat
609# Build (debug version)
610cd bat
611cargo build --bins
613# Run unit tests and integration tests
614cargo test
616# Install (release version)
617cargo install --locked
619# Build a bat binary with modified syntaxes and themes
620bash assets/create.sh
621cargo install --locked --force
622```
624## Maintainers
626- [sharkdp](https://github.com/sharkdp)
627- [eth-p](https://github.com/eth-p)
629## Project goals and alternatives
631`bat` tries to achieve the following goals:
633- Provide beautiful, advanced syntax highlighting
634- Integrate with Git to show file modifications
635- Be a drop-in replacement for (POSIX) `cat`
636- Offer a user-friendly command-line interface
638There are a lot of alternatives, if you are looking for similar programs. See
639[this document](doc/alternatives.md) for a comparison.
641## License
642Copyright (c) 2018-2020 [bat-developers](https://github.com/sharkdp/bat).
644`bat` is distributed under the terms of both the MIT License and the Apache License 2.0.
646See the [LICENSE-APACHE](LICENSE-APACHE) and [LICENSE-MIT](LICENSE-MIT) files for license details.