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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 a pager (e.g `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.
163Also, note that this will [not work](https://github.com/sharkdp/bat/issues/1145) with Mandocs `man` implementation.
165#### `prettier` / `shfmt` / `rustfmt`
167The [`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`.
170## Installation
172[![Packaging status](https://repology.org/badge/vertical-allrepos/bat.svg)](https://repology.org/project/bat/versions)
174### On Ubuntu (using `apt`)
175*... and other Debian-based Linux distributions.*
177`bat` is making its way through the [Ubuntu](https://packages.ubuntu.com/eoan/bat) and
178[Debian](https://packages.debian.org/sid/bat) package release process, and is available
179for Ubuntu as of Eoan 19.10. On Debian `bat` is currently only available on the unstable
180"Sid" branch.
182If your Ubuntu/Debian installation is new enough you can simply run:
184```bash
185apt install bat
186```
188If you install `bat` this way, please note that the executable may be installed as `batcat` instead of `bat` (due to [a name
189clash 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:
190``` bash
191mkdir -p ~/.local/bin
192ln -s /usr/bin/batcat ~/.local/bin/bat
193```
195### On Ubuntu (using most recent `.deb` packages)
196*... and other Debian-based Linux distributions.*
198If the package has not yet been promoted to your Ubuntu/Debian installation, or you want
199the most recent release of `bat`, download the latest `.deb` package from the
200[release page](https://github.com/sharkdp/bat/releases) and install it via:
202```bash
203sudo dpkg -i bat_0.16.0_amd64.deb # adapt version number and architecture
204```
206### On Alpine Linux
208You can install [the `bat` package](https://pkgs.alpinelinux.org/packages?name=bat)
209from the official sources, provided you have the appropriate repository enabled:
211```bash
212apk add bat
213```
215### On Arch Linux
217You can install [the `bat` package](https://www.archlinux.org/packages/community/x86_64/bat/)
218from the official sources:
220```bash
221pacman -S bat
222```
224### On Fedora
226You 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.
228```bash
229dnf install bat
230```
232### On Gentoo Linux
234You can install [the `bat` package](https://packages.gentoo.org/packages/sys-apps/bat)
235from the official sources:
237```bash
238emerge sys-apps/bat
239```
241### On Void Linux
243You can install `bat` via xbps-install:
244```bash
245xbps-install -S bat
246```
248### On FreeBSD
250You can install a precompiled [`bat` package](https://www.freshports.org/textproc/bat) with pkg:
252```bash
253pkg install bat
254```
256or build it on your own from the FreeBSD ports:
258```bash
259cd /usr/ports/textproc/bat
260make install
261```
263### Via nix
265You can install `bat` using the [nix package manager](https://nixos.org/nix):
267```bash
268nix-env -i bat
269```
271### On openSUSE
273You can install `bat` with zypper:
275```bash
276zypper install bat
277```
279### On macOS (or Linux) via Homebrew
281You can install `bat` with [Homebrew on MacOS](https://formulae.brew.sh/formula/bat) or [Homebrew on Linux](https://formulae.brew.sh/formula-linux/bat):
283```bash
284brew install bat
285```
287### On macOS via MacPorts
289Or install `bat` with [MacPorts](https://ports.macports.org/port/bat/summary):
291```bash
292port install bat
293```
295### On Windows
297There are a few options to install `bat` on Windows. Once you have installed `bat`,
298take a look at the ["Using `bat` on Windows"](#using-bat-on-windows) section.
300#### Prerequisites
302You will need to install the [Visual C++ Redistributable](https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/2977003/the-latest-supported-visual-c-downloads) package.
304#### With Chocolatey
306You can install `bat` via [Chocolatey](https://chocolatey.org/packages/Bat):
307```bash
308choco install bat
309```
311#### With Scoop
313You can install `bat` via [scoop](https://scoop.sh/):
314```bash
315scoop install bat
316```
318#### From prebuilt binaries:
320You can download prebuilt binaries from the [Release page](https://github.com/sharkdp/bat/releases),
322You will need to install the [Visual C++ Redistributable](https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/2977003/the-latest-supported-visual-c-downloads) package.
324### From binaries
326Check out the [Release page](https://github.com/sharkdp/bat/releases) for
327prebuilt versions of `bat` for many different architectures. Statically-linked
328binaries are also available: look for archives with `musl` in the file name.
330### From source
332If you want to build `bat` from source, you need Rust 1.40 or
333higher. You can then use `cargo` to build everything:
335```bash
336cargo install --locked bat
337```
339Note that addition files like the man page or shell completion
340files can not be installed in this way. They will be generated by `cargo` and should be available in the cargo target folder (under `build`).
342## Customization
344### Highlighting theme
346Use `bat --list-themes` to get a list of all available themes for syntax
347highlighting. To select the `TwoDark` theme, call `bat` with the
348`--theme=TwoDark` option or set the `BAT_THEME` environment variable to
349`TwoDark`. Use `export BAT_THEME="TwoDark"` in your shell's startup file to
350make the change permanent. Alternatively, use `bat`s
351[configuration file](https://github.com/sharkdp/bat#configuration-file).
353If you want to preview the different themes on a custom file, you can use
354the following command (you need [`fzf`](https://github.com/junegunn/fzf) for this):
355```bash
356bat --list-themes | fzf --preview="bat --theme={} --color=always /path/to/file"
357```
359`bat` looks good on a dark background by default. However, if your terminal uses a
360light background, some themes like `GitHub` or `OneHalfLight` will work better for you.
361You can also use a custom theme by following the
362['Adding new themes' section below](https://github.com/sharkdp/bat#adding-new-themes).
364### 8-bit themes
366`bat` has four themes that always use [8-bit colors](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ANSI_escape_code#Colors),
367even when truecolor support is available:
369- `ansi-dark` looks decent on any terminal with a dark background. It uses 3-bit colors: black, red,
370 green, yellow, blue, magenta, cyan, and white.
371- `ansi-light` is like `ansi-dark`, but for terminals with a light background.
372- `base16` is designed for [base16](https://github.com/chriskempson/base16) terminal themes. It uses
373 4-bit colors (3-bit colors plus bright variants) in accordance with the
374 [base16 styling guidelines](https://github.com/chriskempson/base16/blob/master/styling.md).
375- `base16-256` is designed for [base16-shell](https://github.com/chriskempson/base16-shell).
376 It replaces certain bright colors with 8-bit colors from 16 to 21. **Do not** use this simply
377 because you have a 256-color terminal but are not using base16-shell.
379Although these themes are more restricted, they have two advantages over truecolor themes:
381- They harmonize better with other terminal software using 3-bit or 4-bit colors.
382- When you change your terminal theme, `bat` output already on the screen will update to match.
384### Output style
386You can use the `--style` option to control the appearance of `bat`s output.
387You can use `--style=numbers,changes`, for example, to show only Git changes
388and line numbers but no grid and no file header. Set the `BAT_STYLE` environment
389variable to make these changes permanent or use `bat`s
390[configuration file](https://github.com/sharkdp/bat#configuration-file).
392### Adding new syntaxes / language definitions
394`bat` uses the excellent [`syntect`](https://github.com/trishume/syntect/)
395library for syntax highlighting. `syntect` can read any
396[Sublime Text `.sublime-syntax` file](https://www.sublimetext.com/docs/3/syntax.html)
397and theme. To add new syntax definitions, do the following.
399Create a folder with syntax definition files:
401```bash
402mkdir -p "$(bat --config-dir)/syntaxes"
403cd "$(bat --config-dir)/syntaxes"
405# Put new '.sublime-syntax' language definition files
406# in this folder (or its subdirectories), for example:
407git clone https://github.com/tellnobody1/sublime-purescript-syntax
408```
410Now use the following command to parse these files into a binary cache:
412```bash
413bat cache --build
414```
416Finally, use `bat --list-languages` to check if the new languages are available.
418If you ever want to go back to the default settings, call:
420```bash
421bat cache --clear
422```
424### Adding new themes
426This works very similar to how we add new syntax definitions.
428First, create a folder with the new syntax highlighting themes:
429```bash
430mkdir -p "$(bat --config-dir)/themes"
431cd "$(bat --config-dir)/themes"
433# Download a theme in '.tmTheme' format, for example:
434git clone https://github.com/greggb/sublime-snazzy
436# Update the binary cache
437bat cache --build
438```
440Finally, use `bat --list-themes` to check if the new themes are available.
442### Using a different pager
444`bat` uses the pager that is specified in the `PAGER` environment variable. If this variable is not
445set, `less` is used by default. If you want to use a different pager, you can either modify the
446`PAGER` variable or set the `BAT_PAGER` environment variable to override what is specified in
447`PAGER`.
449If you want to pass command-line arguments to the pager, you can also set them via the
450`PAGER`/`BAT_PAGER` variables:
452```bash
453export BAT_PAGER="less -RF"
454```
456Instead 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).
458**Note**: By default, if the pager is set to `less` (and no command-line options are specified),
459`bat` will pass the following command line options to the pager: `-R`/`--RAW-CONTROL-CHARS`,
460`-F`/`--quit-if-one-screen` and `-X`/`--no-init`. The last option (`-X`) is only used for `less`
461versions older than 530.
463The `-R` option is needed to interpret ANSI colors correctly. The second option (`-F`) instructs
464less to exit immediately if the output size is smaller than the vertical size of the terminal.
465This is convenient for small files because you do not have to press `q` to quit the pager. The
466third option (`-X`) is needed to fix a bug with the `--quit-if-one-screen` feature in old versions
467of `less`. Unfortunately, it also breaks mouse-wheel support in `less`.
469If you want to enable mouse-wheel scrolling on older versions of `less`, you can pass just `-R` (as
470in the example above, this will disable the quit-if-one-screen feature). For less 530 or newer,
471it should work out of the box.
473### Indentation
475`bat` expands tabs to 4 spaces by itself, not relying on the pager. To change this, simply add the
476`--tabs` argument with the number of spaces you want to be displayed.
478**Note**: Defining tab stops for the pager (via the `--pager` argument by `bat`, or via the `LESS`
479environment variable for `less`) won't be taken into account because the pager will already get
480expanded spaces instead of tabs. This behaviour is added to avoid indentation issues caused by the
481sidebar. Calling `bat` with `--tabs=0` will override it and let tabs be consumed by the pager.
483### Dark mode
485If you make use of the dark mode feature in macOS, you might want to configure `bat` to use a different
486theme based on the OS theme. The following snippet uses the `default` theme when in the _dark mode_
487and the `GitHub` theme when in the _light mode_.
489```bash
490alias cat="bat --theme=\$(defaults read -globalDomain AppleInterfaceStyle &> /dev/null && echo default || echo GitHub)"
491```
493## Configuration file
495`bat` can also be customized with a configuration file. The location of the file is dependent
496on your operating system. To get the default path for your system, call
497```
498bat --config-file
499```
501Alternatively, you can use the `BAT_CONFIG_PATH` environment variable to point `bat` to a
502non-default location of the configuration file:
503```bash
504export BAT_CONFIG_PATH="/path/to/bat.conf"
505```
507A default configuration file can be created with the `--generate-config-file` option.
508```bash
509bat --generate-config-file
510```
512### Format
514The 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.
516Example configuration file:
517```bash
518# Set the theme to "TwoDark"
519--theme="TwoDark"
521# Show line numbers, Git modifications and file header (but no grid)
522--style="numbers,changes,header"
524# Use italic text on the terminal (not supported on all terminals)
525--italic-text=always
527# Use C++ syntax for .ino files
528--map-syntax "*.ino:C++"
530# Use ".gitignore"-style highlighting for ".ignore" files
531--map-syntax ".ignore:Git Ignore"
532```
534## Using `bat` on Windows
536`bat` mostly works out-of-the-box on Windows, but a few features may need extra configuration.
538### Prerequisites
540You will need to install the [Visual C++ Redistributable](https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/2977003/the-latest-supported-visual-c-downloads) package.
542### Paging
544Windows only includes a very limited pager in the form of `more`. You can download a Windows binary
545for `less` [from its homepage](http://www.greenwoodsoftware.com/less/download.html) or [through
546Chocolatey](https://chocolatey.org/packages/Less). To use it, place the binary in a directory in
547your `PATH` or [define an environment variable](#using-a-different-pager). The [Chocolatey package](#on-windows) installs `less` automatically.
549### Colors
551Windows 10 natively supports colors in both `conhost.exe` (Command Prompt) and PowerShell since
552[v1511](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windows_10_version_history#Version_1511_(November_Update)), as
553well as in newer versions of bash. On earlier versions of Windows, you can use
554[Cmder](http://cmder.net/), which includes [ConEmu](https://conemu.github.io/).
556**Note:** The Git and MSYS versions of `less` do not correctly interpret colors on Windows. If you
557don’t have any other pagers installed, you can disable paging entirely by passing `--paging=never`
558or by setting `BAT_PAGER` to an empty string.
560### Cygwin
562`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)`
564This can be solved by creating a wrapper or adding the following function to your `.bash_profile` file:
566```bash
567bat() {
568 local index
569 local args=("$@")
570 for index in $(seq 0 ${#args[@]}) ; do
571 case "${args[index]}" in
572 -*) continue;;
573 *) [ -e "${args[index]}" ] && args[index]="$(cygpath --windows "${args[index]}")";;
574 esac
575 done
576 command bat "${args[@]}"
578```
580## Troubleshooting
582### Terminals & colors
584`bat` handles terminals *with* and *without* truecolor support. However, the colors in most syntax
585highlighting themes are not optimized for 8-bit colors. It is therefore strongly recommended
586that you use a terminal with 24-bit truecolor support (`terminator`, `konsole`, `iTerm2`, ...),
587or use one of the basic [8-bit themes](#8-bit-themes) designed for a restricted set of colors.
588See [this article](https://gist.github.com/XVilka/8346728) for more details and a full list of
589terminals with truecolor support.
591Make sure that your truecolor terminal sets the `COLORTERM` variable to either `truecolor` or
592`24bit`. Otherwise, `bat` will not be able to determine whether or not 24-bit escape sequences
593are supported (and fall back to 8-bit colors).
595### Line numbers and grid are hardly visible
597Please try a different theme (see `bat --list-themes` for a list). The `OneHalfDark` and
598`OneHalfLight` themes provide grid and line colors that are brighter.
600### File encodings
602`bat` natively supports UTF-8 as well as UTF-16. For every other file encoding, you may need to
603convert to UTF-8 first because the encodings can typically not be auto-detected. You can `iconv`
604to do so.
605Example: if you have a PHP file in Latin-1 (ISO-8859-1) encoding, you can call:
606``` bash
607iconv -f ISO-8859-1 -t UTF-8 my-file.php | bat
608```
609Note: you might have to use the `-l`/`--language` option if the syntax can not be auto-detected
610by `bat`.
612## Development
614```bash
615# Recursive clone to retrieve all submodules
616git clone --recursive https://github.com/sharkdp/bat
618# Build (debug version)
619cd bat
620cargo build --bins
622# Run unit tests and integration tests
623cargo test
625# Install (release version)
626cargo install --path . --locked
628# Build a bat binary with modified syntaxes and themes
629bash assets/create.sh
630cargo install --path . --locked --force
631```
633## Maintainers
635- [sharkdp](https://github.com/sharkdp)
636- [eth-p](https://github.com/eth-p)
638## Project goals and alternatives
640`bat` tries to achieve the following goals:
642- Provide beautiful, advanced syntax highlighting
643- Integrate with Git to show file modifications
644- Be a drop-in replacement for (POSIX) `cat`
645- Offer a user-friendly command-line interface
647There are a lot of alternatives, if you are looking for similar programs. See
648[this document](doc/alternatives.md) for a comparison.
650## License
651Copyright (c) 2018-2020 [bat-developers](https://github.com/sharkdp/bat).
653`bat` is made available under the terms of either the MIT License or the Apache License 2.0, at your option.
655See the [LICENSE-APACHE](LICENSE-APACHE) and [LICENSE-MIT](LICENSE-MIT) files for license details.