on dd336e6 help sign in
bat/README.md
631 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> •
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
172*... and other Debian-based Linux distributions.*
174You can install [the Ubuntu `bat` package](https://packages.ubuntu.com/eoan/bat) or [the Debian `bat` package](https://packages.debian.org/sid/bat) since Ubuntu Eoan 19.10 or Debian unstable sid.
176```bash
177apt install bat
178```
180If you want to run the latest release of bat or if you are on older versions of Ubuntu/Debian, download the latest `.deb` package from the [release page](https://github.com/sharkdp/bat/releases)
181and install it via:
182```bash
183sudo dpkg -i bat_0.13.0_amd64.deb # adapt version number and architecture
184```
186### On Alpine Linux
188You can install [the `bat` package](https://pkgs.alpinelinux.org/packages?name=bat)
189from the official sources, provided you have the appropriate repository enabled:
191```bash
192apk add bat
193```
195### On Arch Linux
197You can install [the `bat` package](https://www.archlinux.org/packages/community/x86_64/bat/)
198from the official sources:
200```bash
201pacman -S bat
202```
204### On Fedora
206You 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.
208```bash
209dnf install bat
210```
212### On Gentoo Linux
214You can install [the `bat` package](https://packages.gentoo.org/packages/sys-apps/bat)
215from the official sources:
217```bash
218emerge sys-apps/bat
219```
221### On Void Linux
223You can install `bat` via xbps-install:
224```bash
225xbps-install -S bat
226```
228### On FreeBSD
230You can install a precompiled [`bat` package](https://www.freshports.org/textproc/bat) with pkg:
232```bash
233pkg install bat
234```
236or build it on your own from the FreeBSD ports:
238```bash
239cd /usr/ports/textproc/bat
240make install
241```
243### Via nix
245You can install `bat` using the [nix package manager](https://nixos.org/nix):
247```bash
248nix-env -i bat
249```
251### On openSUSE
253You can install `bat` with zypper:
255```bash
256zypper install bat
257```
259### On macOS
261You can install `bat` with [Homebrew](http://braumeister.org/formula/bat):
263```bash
264brew install bat
265```
267Or install `bat` with [MacPorts](https://ports.macports.org/port/bat/summary):
269```bash
270port install bat
271```
273### On Windows
275There are a few options to install `bat` on Windows. Once you have installed `bat`,
276take a look at the ["Using `bat` on Windows"](#using-bat-on-windows) section.
278#### With Chocolatey
280You can install `bat` via [Chocolatey](https://chocolatey.org/packages/Bat):
281```bash
282choco install bat
283```
285#### With Scoop
287You can install `bat` via [scoop](https://scoop.sh/):
288```bash
289scoop install bat
290```
292You will need to install the [Visual C++ Redistributable](https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/2977003/the-latest-supported-visual-c-downloads) package.
294#### From prebuilt binaries:
296You can download prebuilt binaries from the [Release page](https://github.com/sharkdp/bat/releases),
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### Via Docker
302There is a [Docker image](https://hub.docker.com/r/danlynn/bat/) that you can use to run `bat` in a container:
303```bash
304docker pull danlynn/bat
305alias bat='docker run -it --rm -e BAT_THEME -e BAT_STYLE -e BAT_TABS -v "$(pwd):/myapp" danlynn/bat'
306```
308### Via Ansible
310You can install `bat` with [Ansible](https://www.ansible.com/):
312```bash
313# Install role on local machine
314ansible-galaxy install aeimer.install_bat
315```
317```yaml
318---
319# Playbook to install bat
320- host: all
321 roles:
322 - aeimer.install_bat
323```
325- [Ansible Galaxy](https://galaxy.ansible.com/aeimer/install_bat)
326- [GitHub](https://github.com/aeimer/ansible-install-bat)
328This should work with the following distributions:
329- Debian/Ubuntu
330- ARM (eg. Raspberry PI)
331- Arch Linux
332- Void Linux
333- FreeBSD
334- MacOS
336### From binaries
338Check out the [Release page](https://github.com/sharkdp/bat/releases) for
339prebuilt versions of `bat` for many different architectures. Statically-linked
340binaries are also available: look for archives with `musl` in the file name.
342### From source
344If you want to build `bat` from source, you need Rust 1.37 or
345higher. You can then use `cargo` to build everything:
347```bash
348cargo install bat
349```
351On some platforms, you might need to install `llvm` and/or `libclang-dev`.
353## Customization
355### Highlighting theme
357Use `bat --list-themes` to get a list of all available themes for syntax
358highlighting. To select the `TwoDark` theme, call `bat` with the
359`--theme=TwoDark` option or set the `BAT_THEME` environment variable to
360`TwoDark`. Use `export BAT_THEME="TwoDark"` in your shell's startup file to
361make the change permanent. Alternatively, use `bat`s
362[configuration file](https://github.com/sharkdp/bat#configuration-file).
364If you want to preview the different themes on a custom file, you can use
365the following command (you need [`fzf`](https://github.com/junegunn/fzf) for this):
366```bash
367bat --list-themes | fzf --preview="bat --theme={} --color=always /path/to/file"
368```
370`bat` looks good on a dark background by default. However, if your terminal uses a
371light background, some themes like `GitHub` or `OneHalfLight` will work better for you.
372You can also use a custom theme by following the
373['Adding new themes' section below](https://github.com/sharkdp/bat#adding-new-themes).
375### Output style
377You can use the `--style` option to control the appearance of `bat`s output.
378You can use `--style=numbers,changes`, for example, to show only Git changes
379and line numbers but no grid and no file header. Set the `BAT_STYLE` environment
380variable to make these changes permanent or use `bat`s
381[configuration file](https://github.com/sharkdp/bat#configuration-file).
383### Adding new syntaxes / language definitions
385`bat` uses the excellent [`syntect`](https://github.com/trishume/syntect/)
386library for syntax highlighting. `syntect` can read any
387[Sublime Text `.sublime-syntax` file](https://www.sublimetext.com/docs/3/syntax.html)
388and theme. To add new syntax definitions, do the following.
390Create a folder with syntax definition files:
392```bash
393mkdir -p "$(bat --config-dir)/syntaxes"
394cd "$(bat --config-dir)/syntaxes"
396# Put new '.sublime-syntax' language definition files
397# in this folder (or its subdirectories), for example:
398git clone https://github.com/tellnobody1/sublime-purescript-syntax
399```
401Now use the following command to parse these files into a binary cache:
403```bash
404bat cache --build
405```
407Finally, use `bat --list-languages` to check if the new languages are available.
409If you ever want to go back to the default settings, call:
411```bash
412bat cache --clear
413```
415### Adding new themes
417This works very similar to how we add new syntax definitions.
419First, create a folder with the new syntax highlighting themes:
420```bash
421mkdir -p "$(bat --config-dir)/themes"
422cd "$(bat --config-dir)/themes"
424# Download a theme in '.tmTheme' format, for example:
425git clone https://github.com/greggb/sublime-snazzy
427# Update the binary cache
428bat cache --build
429```
431Finally, use `bat --list-themes` to check if the new themes are available.
433### Using a different pager
435`bat` uses the pager that is specified in the `PAGER` environment variable. If this variable is not
436set, `less` is used by default. If you want to use a different pager, you can either modify the
437`PAGER` variable or set the `BAT_PAGER` environment variable to override what is specified in
438`PAGER`.
440If you want to pass command-line arguments to the pager, you can also set them via the
441`PAGER`/`BAT_PAGER` variables:
443```bash
444export BAT_PAGER="less -RF"
445```
447Instead 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).
449**Note**: By default, if the pager is set to `less` (and no command-line options are specified),
450`bat` will pass the following command line options to the pager: `-R`/`--RAW-CONTROL-CHARS`,
451`-F`/`--quit-if-one-screen` and `-X`/`--no-init`. The last option (`-X`) is only used for `less`
452versions older than 530.
454The `-R` option is needed to interpret ANSI colors correctly. The second option (`-F`) instructs
455less to exit immediately if the output size is smaller than the vertical size of the terminal.
456This is convenient for small files because you do not have to press `q` to quit the pager. The
457third option (`-X`) is needed to fix a bug with the `--quit-if-one-screen` feature in old versions
458of `less`. Unfortunately, it also breaks mouse-wheel support in `less`.
460If you want to enable mouse-wheel scrolling on older versions of `less`, you can pass just `-R` (as
461in the example above, this will disable the quit-if-one-screen feature). For less 530 or newer,
462it should work out of the box.
464### Dark mode
466If you make use of the dark mode feature in macOS, you might want to configure `bat` to use a different
467theme based on the OS theme. The following snippet uses the `default` theme when in the light mode
468and the `GitHub` theme when in the dark mode.
470```bash
471alias cat="bat --theme=\$(defaults read -globalDomain AppleInterfaceStyle &> /dev/null && echo default || echo GitHub)"
472```
474## Configuration file
476`bat` can also be customized with a configuration file. The location of the file is dependent
477on your operating system. To get the default path for your system, call
478```
479bat --config-file
480```
482Alternatively, you can use the `BAT_CONFIG_PATH` environment variable to point `bat` to a
483non-default location of the configuration file:
484```bash
485export BAT_CONFIG_PATH="/path/to/bat.conf"
486```
488A default configuration file can be created with the `--generate-config-file` option.
489```bash
490bat --generate-config-file
491```
493### Format
495The 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.
497Example configuration file:
498```bash
499# Set the theme to "TwoDark"
500--theme="TwoDark"
502# Show line numbers, Git modifications and file header (but no grid)
503--style="numbers,changes,header"
505# Use italic text on the terminal (not supported on all terminals)
506--italic-text=always
508# Use C++ syntax for .ino files
509--map-syntax "*.ino:C++"
511# Use ".gitignore"-style highlighting for ".ignore" files
512--map-syntax ".ignore:Git Ignore"
513```
515## Using `bat` on Windows
517`bat` mostly works out-of-the-box on Windows, but a few features may need extra configuration.
519### Paging
521Windows only includes a very limited pager in the form of `more`. You can download a Windows binary
522for `less` [from its homepage](http://www.greenwoodsoftware.com/less/download.html) or [through
523Chocolatey](https://chocolatey.org/packages/Less). To use it, place the binary in a directory in
524your `PATH` or [define an environment variable](#using-a-different-pager). The [Chocolatey package](#on-windows) installs `less` automatically.
526### Colors
528Windows 10 natively supports colors in both `conhost.exe` (Command Prompt) and PowerShell since
529[v1511](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Windows_10_version_history#Version_1511_(November_Update)), as
530well as in newer versions of bash. On earlier versions of Windows, you can use
531[Cmder](http://cmder.net/), which includes [ConEmu](https://conemu.github.io/).
533**Note:** The Git and MSYS versions of `less` do not correctly interpret colors on Windows. If you
534don’t have any other pagers installed, you can disable paging entirely by passing `--paging=never`
535or by setting `BAT_PAGER` to an empty string.
537### Cygwin
539`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)`
541This can be solved by creating a wrapper or adding the following function to your `.bash_profile` file:
543```bash
544bat() {
545 local index
546 local args=("$@")
547 for index in $(seq 0 ${#args[@]}) ; do
548 case "${args[index]}" in
549 -*) continue;;
550 *) [ -e "${args[index]}" ] && args[index]="$(cygpath --windows "${args[index]}")";;
551 esac
552 done
553 command bat "${args[@]}"
555```
557## Troubleshooting
559### Terminals & colors
561`bat` handles terminals *with* and *without* truecolor support. However, the colors in the syntax
562highlighting themes are not optimized for 8-bit colors and it is therefore strongly recommended
563that you use a terminal with 24-bit truecolor support (`terminator`, `konsole`, `iTerm2`, ...).
564See [this article](https://gist.github.com/XVilka/8346728) for more details and a full list of
565terminals with truecolor support.
567Make sure that your truecolor terminal sets the `COLORTERM` variable to either `truecolor` or
568`24bit`. Otherwise, `bat` will not be able to determine whether or not 24-bit escape sequences
569are supported (and fall back to 8-bit colors).
571### Line numbers and grid are hardly visible
573Please try a different theme (see `bat --list-themes` for a list). The `OneHalfDark` and
574`OneHalfLight` themes provide grid and line colors that are brighter.
576### File encodings
578`bat` natively supports UTF-8 as well as UTF-16. For every other file encoding, you may need to
579convert to UTF-8 first because the encodings can typically not be auto-detected. You can `iconv`
580to do so.
581Example: if you have a PHP file in Latin-1 (ISO-8859-1) encoding, you can call:
582``` bash
583iconv -f ISO-8859-1 -t UTF-8 my-file.php | bat
584```
585Note: you might have to use the `-l`/`--language` option if the syntax can not be auto-detected
586by `bat`.
588## Development
590```bash
591# Recursive clone to retrieve all submodules
592git clone --recursive https://github.com/sharkdp/bat
594# Build (debug version)
595cd bat
596cargo build --bins
598# Run unit tests and integration tests
599cargo test
601# Install (release version)
602cargo install
604# Build a bat binary with modified syntaxes and themes
605bash assets/create.sh
606cargo install -f
607```
609## Maintainers
611- [sharkdp](https://github.com/sharkdp)
612- [eth-p](https://github.com/eth-p)
614## Project goals and alternatives
616`bat` tries to achieve the following goals:
618- Provide beautiful, advanced syntax highlighting
619- Integrate with Git to show file modifications
620- Be a drop-in replacement for (POSIX) `cat`
621- Offer a user-friendly command-line interface
623There are a lot of alternatives, if you are looking for similar programs. See
624[this document](doc/alternatives.md) for a comparison.
626## License
627Copyright (c) 2018-2020 [bat-developers](https://github.com/sharkdp/bat).
629`bat` is distributed under the terms of both the MIT License and the Apache License 2.0.
631See the [LICENSE-APACHE](LICENSE-APACHE) and [LICENSE-MIT](LICENSE-MIT) files for license details.