git.iko.soy/bat
on a137db8 help sign in
bat/README.md
620 lines 20 kB history raw
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><br>
16 [<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>]
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 (note, highlighting will
66only work if the syntax can be determined from the first line of the file,
67usually through a shebang such as `#!/bin/sh`)
69```bash
70> curl -s https://sh.rustup.rs | bat
71```
73Read from stdin, specify the language explicitly
75```bash
76> yaml2json .travis.yml | json_pp | bat -l json
77```
79Show and highlight non-printable characters:
80```bash
81> bat -A /etc/hosts
82```
84Use it as a `cat` replacement:
86```bash
87bat > note.md # quickly create a new file
89bat header.md content.md footer.md > document.md
91bat -n main.rs # show line numbers (only)
93bat f - g # output 'f', then stdin, then 'g'.
94```
96### Integration with other tools
98#### `find` or `fd`
100You can use the `-exec` option of `find` to preview all search results with `bat`:
101```bash
102find … -exec bat {} +
103```
105If you happen to use [`fd`](https://github.com/sharkdp/fd), you can use the `-X`/`--exec-batch` option to do the same:
106```bash
107fd … -X bat
108```
110#### `ripgrep`
112With [`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.
114```bash
115batgrep needle src/
116```
118#### `tail -f`
120`bat` can be combined with `tail -f` to continuously monitor a given file with syntax highlighting.
121```bash
122tail -f /var/log/pacman.log | bat --paging=never -l log
123```
124Note that we have to switch off paging in order for this to work. We have also specified the syntax
125explicitly (`-l log`), as it can not be auto-detected in this case.
127#### `git`
129You can combine `bat` with `git show` to view an older version of a given file with proper syntax
130highlighting:
131```bash
132git show v0.6.0:src/main.rs | bat -l rs
133```
135Note that syntax highlighting within diffs is currently not supported. If you are looking for this, check out [`delta`](https://github.com/dandavison/delta).
137#### `xclip`
139The line numbers and Git modification markers in the output of `bat` can make it hard to copy
140the contents of a file. To prevent this, you can call `bat` with the `-p`/`--plain` option or
141simply pipe the output into `xclip`:
142```bash
143bat main.cpp | xclip
144```
145`bat` will detect that the output is being redirected and print the plain file contents.
147#### `man`
149`bat` can be used as a colorizing pager for `man`, by setting the
150`MANPAGER` environment variable:
152```bash
153export MANPAGER="sh -c 'col -bx | bat -l man -p'"
154man 2 select
155```
157It might also be necessary to set `MANROFFOPT="-c"` if you experience
158formatting problems.
160If 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).
162Note that the [Manpage syntax](assets/syntaxes/02_Extra/Manpage.sublime-syntax) is developed in this repository and still needs some work.
164#### `prettier` / `shfmt` / `rustfmt`
166The [`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`.
169## Installation
171[![Packaging status](https://repology.org/badge/vertical-allrepos/bat.svg)](https://repology.org/project/bat/versions)
173### On Ubuntu (using `apt`)
174*... and other Debian-based Linux distributions.*
176`bat` is making its way through the [Ubuntu](https://packages.ubuntu.com/eoan/bat) and
177[Debian](https://packages.debian.org/sid/bat) package release process, and is available
178for Ubuntu as of Eoan 19.10. On Debian `bat` is currently only available on the unstable
179"Sid" branch.
181If your Ubuntu/Debian installation is new enough you can simply run:
183```bash
184apt install bat
185```
187If you install `bat` this way, please note that the executable may be installed as `batcat` instead of `bat` (due to [a name
188clash 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:
189``` bash
190mkdir -p ~/.local/bin
191ln -s /usr/bin/batcat ~/.local/bin/bat
192```
194### On Ubuntu (using most recent `.deb` packages)
195*... and other Debian-based Linux distributions.*
197If the package has not yet been promoted to your Ubuntu/Debian installation, or you want
198the most recent release of `bat`, download the latest `.deb` package from the
199[release page](https://github.com/sharkdp/bat/releases) and install it via:
201```bash
202sudo dpkg -i bat_0.15.4_amd64.deb # adapt version number and architecture
203```
205### On Alpine Linux
207You can install [the `bat` package](https://pkgs.alpinelinux.org/packages?name=bat)
208from the official sources, provided you have the appropriate repository enabled:
210```bash
211apk add bat
212```
214### On Arch Linux
216You can install [the `bat` package](https://www.archlinux.org/packages/community/x86_64/bat/)
217from the official sources:
219```bash
220pacman -S bat
221```
223### On Fedora
225You 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.
227```bash
228dnf install bat
229```
231### On Gentoo Linux
233You can install [the `bat` package](https://packages.gentoo.org/packages/sys-apps/bat)
234from the official sources:
236```bash
237emerge sys-apps/bat
238```
240### On Void Linux
242You can install `bat` via xbps-install:
243```bash
244xbps-install -S bat
245```
247### On FreeBSD
249You can install a precompiled [`bat` package](https://www.freshports.org/textproc/bat) with pkg:
251```bash
252pkg install bat
253```
255or build it on your own from the FreeBSD ports:
257```bash
258cd /usr/ports/textproc/bat
259make install
260```
262### Via nix
264You can install `bat` using the [nix package manager](https://nixos.org/nix):
266```bash
267nix-env -i bat
268```
270### On openSUSE
272You can install `bat` with zypper:
274```bash
275zypper install bat
276```
278### On macOS
280You can install `bat` with [Homebrew](http://braumeister.org/formula/bat):
282```bash
283brew install bat
284```
286Or install `bat` with [MacPorts](https://ports.macports.org/port/bat/summary):
288```bash
289port install bat
290```
292### On Windows
294There are a few options to install `bat` on Windows. Once you have installed `bat`,
295take a look at the ["Using `bat` on Windows"](#using-bat-on-windows) section.
297#### With Chocolatey
299You can install `bat` via [Chocolatey](https://chocolatey.org/packages/Bat):
300```bash
301choco install bat
302```
304#### With Scoop
306You can install `bat` via [scoop](https://scoop.sh/):
307```bash
308scoop install bat
309```
311You will need to install the [Visual C++ Redistributable](https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/2977003/the-latest-supported-visual-c-downloads) package.
313#### From prebuilt binaries:
315You can download prebuilt binaries from the [Release page](https://github.com/sharkdp/bat/releases),
317You will need to install the [Visual C++ Redistributable](https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/2977003/the-latest-supported-visual-c-downloads) package.
319### Via Docker
321There is a [Docker image](https://hub.docker.com/r/danlynn/bat/) that you can use to run `bat` in a container:
322```bash
323docker pull danlynn/bat
324alias bat='docker run -it --rm -e BAT_THEME -e BAT_STYLE -e BAT_TABS -v "$(pwd):/myapp" danlynn/bat'
325```
327### From binaries
329Check out the [Release page](https://github.com/sharkdp/bat/releases) for
330prebuilt versions of `bat` for many different architectures. Statically-linked
331binaries are also available: look for archives with `musl` in the file name.
333### From source
335If you want to build `bat` from source, you need Rust 1.40 or
336higher. You can then use `cargo` to build everything:
338```bash
339cargo install --locked bat
340```
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### Output style
366You can use the `--style` option to control the appearance of `bat`s output.
367You can use `--style=numbers,changes`, for example, to show only Git changes
368and line numbers but no grid and no file header. Set the `BAT_STYLE` environment
369variable to make these changes permanent or use `bat`s
370[configuration file](https://github.com/sharkdp/bat#configuration-file).
372### Adding new syntaxes / language definitions
374`bat` uses the excellent [`syntect`](https://github.com/trishume/syntect/)
375library for syntax highlighting. `syntect` can read any
376[Sublime Text `.sublime-syntax` file](https://www.sublimetext.com/docs/3/syntax.html)
377and theme. To add new syntax definitions, do the following.
379Create a folder with syntax definition files:
381```bash
382mkdir -p "$(bat --config-dir)/syntaxes"
383cd "$(bat --config-dir)/syntaxes"
385# Put new '.sublime-syntax' language definition files
386# in this folder (or its subdirectories), for example:
387git clone https://github.com/tellnobody1/sublime-purescript-syntax
388```
390Now use the following command to parse these files into a binary cache:
392```bash
393bat cache --build
394```
396Finally, use `bat --list-languages` to check if the new languages are available.
398If you ever want to go back to the default settings, call:
400```bash
401bat cache --clear
402```
404### Adding new themes
406This works very similar to how we add new syntax definitions.
408First, create a folder with the new syntax highlighting themes:
409```bash
410mkdir -p "$(bat --config-dir)/themes"
411cd "$(bat --config-dir)/themes"
413# Download a theme in '.tmTheme' format, for example:
414git clone https://github.com/greggb/sublime-snazzy
416# Update the binary cache
417bat cache --build
418```
420Finally, use `bat --list-themes` to check if the new themes are available.
422### Using a different pager
424`bat` uses the pager that is specified in the `PAGER` environment variable. If this variable is not
425set, `less` is used by default. If you want to use a different pager, you can either modify the
426`PAGER` variable or set the `BAT_PAGER` environment variable to override what is specified in
427`PAGER`.
429If you want to pass command-line arguments to the pager, you can also set them via the
430`PAGER`/`BAT_PAGER` variables:
432```bash
433export BAT_PAGER="less -RF"
434```
436Instead 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).
438**Note**: By default, if the pager is set to `less` (and no command-line options are specified),
439`bat` will pass the following command line options to the pager: `-R`/`--RAW-CONTROL-CHARS`,
440`-F`/`--quit-if-one-screen` and `-X`/`--no-init`. The last option (`-X`) is only used for `less`
441versions older than 530.
443The `-R` option is needed to interpret ANSI colors correctly. The second option (`-F`) instructs
444less to exit immediately if the output size is smaller than the vertical size of the terminal.
445This is convenient for small files because you do not have to press `q` to quit the pager. The
446third option (`-X`) is needed to fix a bug with the `--quit-if-one-screen` feature in old versions
447of `less`. Unfortunately, it also breaks mouse-wheel support in `less`.
449If you want to enable mouse-wheel scrolling on older versions of `less`, you can pass just `-R` (as
450in the example above, this will disable the quit-if-one-screen feature). For less 530 or newer,
451it should work out of the box.
453### Dark mode
455If you make use of the dark mode feature in macOS, you might want to configure `bat` to use a different
456theme based on the OS theme. The following snippet uses the `default` theme when in the _dark mode_
457and the `GitHub` theme when in the _light mode_.
459```bash
460alias cat="bat --theme=\$(defaults read -globalDomain AppleInterfaceStyle &> /dev/null && echo default || echo GitHub)"
461```
463## Configuration file
465`bat` can also be customized with a configuration file. The location of the file is dependent
466on your operating system. To get the default path for your system, call
467```
468bat --config-file
469```
471Alternatively, you can use the `BAT_CONFIG_PATH` environment variable to point `bat` to a
472non-default location of the configuration file:
473```bash
474export BAT_CONFIG_PATH="/path/to/bat.conf"
475```
477A default configuration file can be created with the `--generate-config-file` option.
478```bash
479bat --generate-config-file
480```
482### Format
484The 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.
486Example configuration file:
487```bash
488# Set the theme to "TwoDark"
489--theme="TwoDark"
491# Show line numbers, Git modifications and file header (but no grid)
492--style="numbers,changes,header"
494# Use italic text on the terminal (not supported on all terminals)
495--italic-text=always
497# Use C++ syntax for .ino files
498--map-syntax "*.ino:C++"
500# Use ".gitignore"-style highlighting for ".ignore" files
501--map-syntax ".ignore:Git Ignore"
502```
504## Using `bat` on Windows
506`bat` mostly works out-of-the-box on Windows, but a few features may need extra configuration.
508### Paging
510Windows only includes a very limited pager in the form of `more`. You can download a Windows binary
511for `less` [from its homepage](http://www.greenwoodsoftware.com/less/download.html) or [through
512Chocolatey](https://chocolatey.org/packages/Less). To use it, place the binary in a directory in
513your `PATH` or [define an environment variable](#using-a-different-pager). The [Chocolatey package](#on-windows) installs `less` automatically.
515### Colors
517Windows 10 natively supports colors in both `conhost.exe` (Command Prompt) and PowerShell since
518[v1511](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windows_10_version_history#Version_1511_(November_Update)), as
519well as in newer versions of bash. On earlier versions of Windows, you can use
520[Cmder](http://cmder.net/), which includes [ConEmu](https://conemu.github.io/).
522**Note:** The Git and MSYS versions of `less` do not correctly interpret colors on Windows. If you
523don’t have any other pagers installed, you can disable paging entirely by passing `--paging=never`
524or by setting `BAT_PAGER` to an empty string.
526### Cygwin
528`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)`
530This can be solved by creating a wrapper or adding the following function to your `.bash_profile` file:
532```bash
533bat() {
534 local index
535 local args=("$@")
536 for index in $(seq 0 ${#args[@]}) ; do
537 case "${args[index]}" in
538 -*) continue;;
539 *) [ -e "${args[index]}" ] && args[index]="$(cygpath --windows "${args[index]}")";;
540 esac
541 done
542 command bat "${args[@]}"
544```
546## Troubleshooting
548### Terminals & colors
550`bat` handles terminals *with* and *without* truecolor support. However, the colors in the syntax
551highlighting themes are not optimized for 8-bit colors and it is therefore strongly recommended
552that you use a terminal with 24-bit truecolor support (`terminator`, `konsole`, `iTerm2`, ...).
553See [this article](https://gist.github.com/XVilka/8346728) for more details and a full list of
554terminals with truecolor support.
556Make sure that your truecolor terminal sets the `COLORTERM` variable to either `truecolor` or
557`24bit`. Otherwise, `bat` will not be able to determine whether or not 24-bit escape sequences
558are supported (and fall back to 8-bit colors).
560### Line numbers and grid are hardly visible
562Please try a different theme (see `bat --list-themes` for a list). The `OneHalfDark` and
563`OneHalfLight` themes provide grid and line colors that are brighter.
565### File encodings
567`bat` natively supports UTF-8 as well as UTF-16. For every other file encoding, you may need to
568convert to UTF-8 first because the encodings can typically not be auto-detected. You can `iconv`
569to do so.
570Example: if you have a PHP file in Latin-1 (ISO-8859-1) encoding, you can call:
571``` bash
572iconv -f ISO-8859-1 -t UTF-8 my-file.php | bat
573```
574Note: you might have to use the `-l`/`--language` option if the syntax can not be auto-detected
575by `bat`.
577## Development
579```bash
580# Recursive clone to retrieve all submodules
581git clone --recursive https://github.com/sharkdp/bat
583# Build (debug version)
584cd bat
585cargo build --bins
587# Run unit tests and integration tests
588cargo test
590# Install (release version)
591cargo install --locked
593# Build a bat binary with modified syntaxes and themes
594bash assets/create.sh
595cargo install --locked --force
596```
598## Maintainers
600- [sharkdp](https://github.com/sharkdp)
601- [eth-p](https://github.com/eth-p)
603## Project goals and alternatives
605`bat` tries to achieve the following goals:
607- Provide beautiful, advanced syntax highlighting
608- Integrate with Git to show file modifications
609- Be a drop-in replacement for (POSIX) `cat`
610- Offer a user-friendly command-line interface
612There are a lot of alternatives, if you are looking for similar programs. See
613[this document](doc/alternatives.md) for a comparison.
615## License
616Copyright (c) 2018-2020 [bat-developers](https://github.com/sharkdp/bat).
618`bat` is distributed under the terms of both the MIT License and the Apache License 2.0.
620See the [LICENSE-APACHE](LICENSE-APACHE) and [LICENSE-MIT](LICENSE-MIT) files for license details.