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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?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">日本文</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 show`
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```
133#### `xclip`
135The line numbers and Git modification markers in the output of `bat` can make it hard to copy
136the contents of a file. To prevent this, you can call `bat` with the `-p`/`--plain` option or
137simply pipe the output into `xclip`:
138```bash
139bat main.cpp | xclip
140```
141`bat` will detect that the output is being redirected and print the plain file contents.
143#### `man`
145`bat` can be used as a colorizing pager for `man`, by setting the
146`MANPAGER` environment variable:
148```bash
149export MANPAGER="sh -c 'col -bx | bat -l man -p'"
150man 2 select
151```
153It might also be necessary to set `MANROFFOPT="-c"` if you experience
154formatting problems.
156If 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).
158Note that the [Manpage syntax](assets/syntaxes/Manpage.sublime-syntax) is developed in this repository and still needs some work.
160#### `prettier` / `shfmt` / `rustfmt`
162The [`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`.
165## Installation
167[![Packaging status](https://repology.org/badge/vertical-allrepos/bat.svg)](https://repology.org/project/bat/versions)
169### On Ubuntu
170*... and other Debian-based Linux distributions.*
172Download the latest `.deb` package from the [release page](https://github.com/sharkdp/bat/releases)
173and install it via:
174```bash
175sudo dpkg -i bat_0.12.1_amd64.deb # adapt version number and architecture
176```
178### On Alpine Linux
180You can install [the `bat` package](https://pkgs.alpinelinux.org/packages?name=bat)
181from the official sources, provided you have the appropriate repository enabled:
183```bash
184apk add bat
185```
187### On Arch Linux
189You can install [the `bat` package](https://www.archlinux.org/packages/community/x86_64/bat/)
190from the official sources:
192```bash
193pacman -S bat
194```
196### On Fedora
198You 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.
200```bash
201dnf install bat
202```
204### On Gentoo Linux
206You can install [the `bat` package](https://packages.gentoo.org/packages/sys-apps/bat)
207from the official sources:
209```bash
210emerge sys-apps/bat
211```
213### On Void Linux
215You can install `bat` via xbps-install:
216```bash
217xbps-install -S bat
218```
220### On FreeBSD
222You can install a precompiled [`bat` package](https://www.freshports.org/textproc/bat) with pkg:
224```bash
225pkg install bat
226```
228or build it on your own from the FreeBSD ports:
230```bash
231cd /usr/ports/textproc/bat
232make install
233```
235### Via nix
237You can install `bat` using the [nix package manager](https://nixos.org/nix):
239```bash
240nix-env -i bat
241```
243### On openSUSE
245You can install `bat` with zypper:
247```bash
248zypper install bat
249```
251### On macOS
253You can install `bat` with [Homebrew](http://braumeister.org/formula/bat):
255```bash
256brew install bat
257```
259Or install `bat` with [MacPorts](https://ports.macports.org/port/bat/summary):
261```bash
262port install bat
263```
265### On Windows
267You can download prebuilt binaries from the [Release page](https://github.com/sharkdp/bat/releases),
268or install it with [scoop](https://scoop.sh/) or [Chocolatey](https://chocolatey.org):
270```bash
271scoop install bat
272```
274```bash
275choco install bat
276```
278[See below](#using-bat-on-windows) for notes.
280### Via Docker
282There is a [Docker image](https://hub.docker.com/r/danlynn/bat/) that you can use to run `bat` in a container:
283```bash
284docker pull danlynn/bat
285alias bat='docker run -it --rm -e BAT_THEME -e BAT_STYLE -e BAT_TABS -v "$(pwd):/myapp" danlynn/bat'
286```
288### Via Ansible
290You can install `bat` with [Ansible](https://www.ansible.com/):
292```bash
293# Install role on local machine
294ansible-galaxy install aeimer.install_bat
295```
297```yaml
298---
299# Playbook to install bat
300- host: all
301 roles:
302 - aeimer.install_bat
303```
305- [Ansible Galaxy](https://galaxy.ansible.com/aeimer/install_bat)
306- [GitHub](https://github.com/aeimer/ansible-install-bat)
308This should work with the following distributions:
309- Debian/Ubuntu
310- ARM (eg. Raspberry PI)
311- Arch Linux
312- Void Linux
313- FreeBSD
314- MacOS
316### From binaries
318Check out the [Release page](https://github.com/sharkdp/bat/releases) for
319prebuilt versions of `bat` for many different architectures. Statically-linked
320binaries are also available: look for archives with `musl` in the file name.
322### From source
324If you want to build `bat` from source, you need Rust 1.35 or
325higher. You can then use `cargo` to build everything:
327```bash
328cargo install bat
329```
331On some platforms, you might need to install `llvm` and/or `libclang-dev`.
333## Customization
335### Highlighting theme
337Use `bat --list-themes` to get a list of all available themes for syntax
338highlighting. To select the `TwoDark` theme, call `bat` with the
339`--theme=TwoDark` option or set the `BAT_THEME` environment variable to
340`TwoDark`. Use `export BAT_THEME="TwoDark"` in your shell's startup file to
341make the change permanent. Alternatively, use `bat`s
342[configuration file](https://github.com/sharkdp/bat#configuration-file).
344If you want to preview the different themes on a custom file, you can use
345the following command (you need [`fzf`](https://github.com/junegunn/fzf) for this):
346```bash
347bat --list-themes | fzf --preview="bat --theme={} --color=always /path/to/file"
348```
350`bat` looks good on a dark background by default. However, if your terminal uses a
351light background, some themes like `GitHub` or `OneHalfLight` will work better for you.
352You can also use a custom theme by following the
353['Adding new themes' section below](https://github.com/sharkdp/bat#adding-new-themes).
355### Output style
357You can use the `--style` option to control the appearance of `bat`s output.
358You can use `--style=numbers,changes`, for example, to show only Git changes
359and line numbers but no grid and no file header. Set the `BAT_STYLE` environment
360variable to make these changes permanent or use `bat`s
361[configuration file](https://github.com/sharkdp/bat#configuration-file).
363### Adding new syntaxes / language definitions
365`bat` uses the excellent [`syntect`](https://github.com/trishume/syntect/)
366library for syntax highlighting. `syntect` can read any
367[Sublime Text `.sublime-syntax` file](https://www.sublimetext.com/docs/3/syntax.html)
368and theme. To add new syntax definitions, do the following.
370Create a folder with syntax definition files:
372```bash
373mkdir -p "$(bat --config-dir)/syntaxes"
374cd "$(bat --config-dir)/syntaxes"
376# Put new '.sublime-syntax' language definition files
377# in this folder (or its subdirectories), for example:
378git clone https://github.com/tellnobody1/sublime-purescript-syntax
379```
381Now use the following command to parse these files into a binary cache:
383```bash
384bat cache --build
385```
387Finally, use `bat --list-languages` to check if the new languages are available.
389If you ever want to go back to the default settings, call:
391```bash
392bat cache --clear
393```
395### Adding new themes
397This works very similar to how we add new syntax definitions.
399First, create a folder with the new syntax highlighting themes:
400```bash
401mkdir -p "$(bat --config-dir)/themes"
402cd "$(bat --config-dir)/themes"
404# Download a theme in '.tmTheme' format, for example:
405git clone https://github.com/greggb/sublime-snazzy
407# Update the binary cache
408bat cache --build
409```
411Finally, use `bat --list-themes` to check if the new themes are available.
413### Using a different pager
415`bat` uses the pager that is specified in the `PAGER` environment variable. If this variable is not
416set, `less` is used by default. If you want to use a different pager, you can either modify the
417`PAGER` variable or set the `BAT_PAGER` environment variable to override what is specified in
418`PAGER`.
420If you want to pass command-line arguments to the pager, you can also set them via the
421`PAGER`/`BAT_PAGER` variables:
423```bash
424export BAT_PAGER="less -RF"
425```
427Instead 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).
429**Note**: By default, if the pager is set to `less` (and no command-line options are specified),
430`bat` will pass the following command line
431options to the pager: `-R`/`--RAW-CONTROL-CHARS`, `-F`/`--quit-if-one-screen` and `-X`/`--no-init`.
432The first (`-R`) is needed to interpret ANSI colors correctly. The second option (`-F`) instructs
433less to exit immediately if the output size is smaller than the vertical size of the terminal.
434This is convenient for small files because you do not have to press `q` to quit the pager. The
435third option (`-X`) is needed to fix a bug with the `--quit-if-one-screen` feature in old versions
436of `less`. Unfortunately, it also breaks mouse-wheel support in `less`. If you want to enable
437mouse-wheel scrolling, you can either pass just `-R` (as in the example above, this will disable
438the quit-if-one-screen feature), or you can use a recent version of `less` and pass `-RF` which
439will hopefully enable both quit-if-one-screen and mouse-wheel scrolling.
441If scrolling still doesn't work for you, you can try to pass the `-S` option in addition.
443### Dark mode
445If you make use of the dark mode feature in macOS, you might want to configure `bat` to use a different
446theme based on the OS theme. The following snippet uses the `default` theme when in the light mode
447and the `GitHub` theme when in the dark mode.
449```bash
450alias cat="bat --theme=\$(defaults read -globalDomain AppleInterfaceStyle &> /dev/null && echo default || echo GitHub)"
451```
453## Configuration file
455`bat` can also be customized with a configuration file. The location of the file is dependent
456on your operating system. To get the default path for your system, call
457```
458bat --config-file
459```
461Alternatively, you can use the `BAT_CONFIG_PATH` environment variable to point `bat` to a
462non-default location of the configuration file:
463```bash
464export BAT_CONFIG_PATH="/path/to/bat.conf"
465```
467### Format
469The 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.
471Example configuration file:
472```bash
473# Set the theme to "TwoDark"
474--theme="TwoDark"
476# Show line numbers, Git modifications and file header (but no grid)
477--style="numbers,changes,header"
479# Use italic text on the terminal (not supported on all terminals)
480--italic-text=always
482# Add mouse scrolling support in less (does not work with older
483# versions of "less")
484--pager="less -FR"
486# Use C++ syntax (instead of C) for .h header files
487--map-syntax h:cpp
489# Use "gitignore" highlighting for ".ignore" files
490--map-syntax .ignore:.gitignore
491```
493## Using `bat` on Windows
495`bat` mostly works out-of-the-box on Windows, but a few features may need extra configuration.
497### Paging
499Windows only includes a very limited pager in the form of `more`. You can download a Windows binary
500for `less` [from its homepage](http://www.greenwoodsoftware.com/less/download.html) or [through
501Chocolatey](https://chocolatey.org/packages/Less). To use it, place the binary in a directory in
502your `PATH` or [define an environment variable](#using-a-different-pager). The [Chocolatey package](#on-windows) installs `less` automatically.
504### Colors
506Windows 10 natively supports colors in both `conhost.exe` (Command Prompt) and PowerShell since
507[v1511](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windows_10_version_history#Version_1511_(November_Update)), as
508well as in newer versions of bash. On earlier versions of Windows, you can use
509[Cmder](http://cmder.net/), which includes [ConEmu](https://conemu.github.io/).
511**Note:** The Git and MSYS versions of `less` do not correctly interpret colors on Windows. If you
512don’t have any other pagers installed, you can disable paging entirely by passing `--paging=never`
513or by setting `BAT_PAGER` to an empty string.
515### Cygwin
517`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)`
519This can be solved by creating a wrapper or adding the following function to your `.bash_profile` file:
521```bash
522bat() {
523 local index
524 local args=("$@")
525 for index in $(seq 0 ${#args[@]}) ; do
526 case "${args[index]}" in
527 -*) continue;;
528 *) [ -e "${args[index]}" ] && args[index]="$(cygpath --windows "${args[index]}")";;
529 esac
530 done
531 command bat "${args[@]}"
533```
535## Troubleshooting
537### Terminals & colors
539`bat` handles terminals *with* and *without* truecolor support. However, the colors in the syntax
540highlighting themes are not optimized for 8-bit colors and it is therefore strongly recommended
541that you use a terminal with 24-bit truecolor support (`terminator`, `konsole`, `iTerm2`, ...).
542See [this article](https://gist.github.com/XVilka/8346728) for more details and a full list of
543terminals with truecolor support.
545Make sure that your truecolor terminal sets the `COLORTERM` variable to either `truecolor` or
546`24bit`. Otherwise, `bat` will not be able to determine whether or not 24-bit escape sequences
547are supported (and fall back to 8-bit colors).
549### Line numbers and grid are hardly visible
551Please try a different theme (see `bat --list-themes` for a list). The `OneHalfDark` and
552`OneHalfLight` themes provide grid and line colors that are brighter.
554### File encodings
556`bat` natively supports UTF-8 as well as UTF-16. For every other file encoding, you may need to
557convert to UTF-8 first because the encodings can typically not be auto-detected. You can `iconv`
558to do so.
559Example: if you have a PHP file in Latin-1 (ISO-8859-1) encoding, you can call:
560``` bash
561iconv -f ISO-8859-1 -t UTF-8 my-file.php | bat
562```
563Note: you might have to use the `-l`/`--language` option if the syntax can not be auto-detected
564by `bat`.
566## Development
568```bash
569# Recursive clone to retrieve all submodules
570git clone --recursive https://github.com/sharkdp/bat
572# Build (debug version)
573cd bat
574cargo build --bins
576# Run unit tests and integration tests
577cargo test
579# Install (release version)
580cargo install
582# Build a bat binary with modified syntaxes and themes
583bash assets/create.sh
584cargo install -f
585```
587## Maintainers
589- [sharkdp](https://github.com/sharkdp)
590- [eth-p](https://github.com/eth-p)
592## Project goals and alternatives
594`bat` tries to achieve the following goals:
596- Provide beautiful, advanced syntax highlighting
597- Integrate with Git to show file modifications
598- Be a drop-in replacement for (POSIX) `cat`
599- Offer a user-friendly command-line interface
601There are a lot of alternatives, if you are looking for similar programs. See
602[this document](doc/alternatives.md) for a comparison.