path: root/README.md

<p align="center">
  <img src="doc/logo-header.svg" alt="bat - a cat clone with wings"><br>
  <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>
  <img src="https://img.shields.io/crates/l/bat.svg" alt="license">
  <a href="https://crates.io/crates/bat"><img src="https://img.shields.io/crates/v/bat.svg?colorB=319e8c" alt="Version info"></a><br>
  A <i>cat(1)</i> clone with syntax highlighting and Git integration.
</p>

<p align="center">
  <a href="#syntax-highlighting">Key Features</a> •
  <a href="#how-to-use">How To Use</a> •
  <a href="#installation">Installation</a> •
  <a href="#customization">Customization</a> •
  <a href="#project-goals-and-alternatives">Project goals, alternatives</a><br>
  [English]
  [<a href="doc/README-zh.md">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>]
</p>

### Sponsors

A special *thank you* goes to our biggest <a href="doc/sponsors.md">sponsors</a>:<br>
<a href="https://workos.com/?utm_campaign=github_repo&utm_medium=referral&utm_content=bat&utm_source=github">
  <img src="doc/sponsors/workos-logo-white-bg.svg" width="200" alt="WorkOS">
  <br>
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  <br>
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  <br>
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</a>

<a href="https://www.warp.dev/?utm_source=github&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=bat_20231001">
  <img src="doc/sponsors/warp-logo.png" width="200" alt="Warp">
  <br>
  <strong>Warp is a modern, Rust-based terminal with AI built in<br>so you and your team can build great software, faster.</strong>
  <br>
  <sub>Feel more productive on the command line with parameterized commands,</sub>
  <br>
  <sup>autosuggestions, and an IDE-like text editor.</sup>
</a>

### Syntax highlighting

`bat` supports syntax highlighting for a large number of programming and markup
languages:

![Syntax highlighting example](https://imgur.com/rGsdnDe.png)

### Git integration

`bat` communicates with `git` to show modifications with respect to the index
(see left side bar):

![Git integration example](https://i.imgur.com/2lSW4RE.png)

### Show non-printable characters

You can use the `-A`/`--show-all` option to show and highlight non-printable
characters:

![Non-printable character example](https://i.imgur.com/WndGp9H.png)

### Automatic paging

By default, `bat` pipes its own output to a pager (e.g. `less`) if the output is too large for one screen.
If you would rather `bat` work like `cat` all the time (never page output), you can set `--paging=never` as an option, either on the command line or in your configuration file.
If you intend to alias `cat` to `bat` in your shell configuration, you can use `alias cat='bat --paging=never'` to preserve the default behavior.

#### File concatenation

Even with a pager set, you can still use `bat` to concatenate files :wink:.
Whenever `bat` detects a non-interactive terminal (i.e. when you pipe into another process or into a file), `bat` will act as a drop-in replacement for `cat` and fall back to printing the plain file contents, regardless of the `--pager` option's value.

## How to use

Display a single file on the terminal

```bash
> bat README.md
```

Display multiple files at once

```bash
> bat src/*.rs
```

Read from stdin, determine the syntax automatically (note, highlighting will
only work if the syntax can be determined from the first line of the file,
usually through a shebang such as `#!/bin/sh`)

```bash
> curl -s https://sh.rustup.rs | bat
```

Read from stdin, specify the language explicitly

```bash
> yaml2json .travis.yml | json_pp | bat -l json
```

Show and highlight non-printable characters:
```bash
> bat -A /etc/hosts
```

Use it as a `cat` replacement:

```bash
bat > note.md  # quickly create a new file

bat header.md content.md footer.md > document.md

bat -n main.rs  # show line numbers (only)

bat f - g  # output 'f', then stdin, then 'g'.
```

### Integration with other tools

#### `fzf`

You can use `bat` as a previewer for [`fzf`](https://github.com/junegunn/fzf). To do this,
use `bat`s `--color=always` option to force colorized output. You can also use `--line-range`
option to restrict the load times for long files:

```bash
fzf --preview "bat --color=always --style=numbers --line-range=:500 {}"
```

For more information, see [`fzf`'s `README`](https://github.com/junegunn/fzf#preview-window).

#### `find` or `fd`

You can use the `-exec` option of `find` to preview all search results with `bat`:

```bash
find … -exec bat {} +
```

If you happen to use [`fd`](https://github.com/sharkdp/fd), you can use the `-X`/`--exec-batch` option to do the same:

```bash
fd … -X bat
```

#### `ripgrep`

With [`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.

```bash
batgrep needle src/
```

#### `tail -f`

`bat` can be combined with `tail -f` to continuously monitor a given file with syntax highlighting.

```bash
tail -f /var/log/pacman.log | bat --paging=never -l log
```

Note that we have to switch off paging in order for this to work. We have also specified the syntax
explicitly (`-l log`), as it can not be auto-detected in this case.

#### `git`

You can combine `bat` with `git show` to view an older version of a given file with proper syntax
highlighting:

```bash
git show v0.6.0:src/main.rs | bat -l rs
```

#### `git diff`

You can combine `bat` with `git diff` to view lines around code changes with proper syntax
highlighting:
```bash
batdiff() {
    git diff --name-only --relative --diff-filter=d | xargs bat --diff
}
```
If you prefer to use this as a separate tool, check out `batdiff` in [`bat-extras`](https://github.com/eth-p/bat-extras).

If you are looking for more support for git and diff operations, check out [`delta`](https://github.com/dandavison/delta).

#### `xclip`

The line numbers and Git modification markers in the output of `bat` can make it hard to copy
the contents of a file. To prevent this, you can call `bat` with the `-p`/`--plain` option or
simply pipe the output into `xclip`:
```bash
bat main.cpp | xclip
```
`bat` will detect that the output is being redirected and print the plain file contents.

#### `man`

`bat` can be used as a colorizing pager for `man`, by setting the
`MANPAGER` environment variable:

```bash
export MANPAGER="sh -c 'col -bx | bat -l man -p'"
man 2 select
```
(replace `bat` with `batcat` if you are on Debian or Ubuntu)

It might also be necessary to set `MANROFFOPT="-c"` if you experience
formatting problems.

If 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).

Note that the [Manpage syntax](assets/syntaxes/02_Extra/Manpage.sublime-syntax) is developed in this repository and still needs some work.

Also, note that this will [not work](https://github.com/sharkdp/bat/issues/1145) with Mandocs `man` implementation.

#### `prettier` / `shfmt` / `rustfmt`

The [`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`.

#### Highlighting `--help` messages

You can use `bat` to colorize help text: `$ cp --help | bat -plhelp`

You can also use a wrapper around this:

```bash
# in your .bashrc/.zshrc/*rc
alias bathelp='bat --plain --language=help'
help() {
    "$@" --help 2>&1 | bathelp
}
```

Then you can do `$ help cp` or `$ help git commit`.

When you are using `zsh`, you can also use global aliases to override `-h` and `--help` entirely:

```bash
alias -g -- -h='-h 2>&1 | bat --language=help --style=plain'
alias -g -- --help='--help 2>&1 | bat --language=help --style=plain'
```

This way, you can keep on using `cp --help`, but get colorized help pages.

Be aware that in some cases, `-h` may not be a shorthand of `--help` (for example with `ls`).

Please report any issues with the help syntax in [this repository](https://github.com/victor-gp/cmd-help-sublime-syntax).


## Installation

[![Packaging status](https://repology.org/badge/vertical-allrepos/bat-cat.svg?columns=3&exclude_unsupported=1)](https://repology.org/project/bat-cat/versions)

### On Ubuntu (using `apt`)
*... and other Debian-based Linux distributions.*

`bat` is available on [Ubuntu since 20.04 ("Focal")](https://packages.ubuntu.com/search?keywords=bat&exact=1) and [Debian since August 2021 (Debian 11 - "Bullseye")](https://packages.debian.org/bullseye/bat).

If your Ubuntu/Debian installation is new enough you can simply run:

```bash
sudo apt install bat
```

**Important**: If you install `bat` this way, please note that the executable may be installed as `batcat` instead of `bat` (due to [a name
clash 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:
``` bash
mkdir -p ~/.local/bin
ln -s /usr/bin/batcat ~/.local/bin/bat
```

### On Ubuntu (using most recent `.deb` packages)
*... and other Debian-based Linux distributions.*

If the package has not yet been promoted to your Ubuntu/Debian installation, or you want
the most recent release of `bat`, download the latest `.deb` package from the
[release page](https://github.com/sharkdp/bat/releases) and install it via:

```bash
sudo dpkg -i bat_0.18.3_amd64.deb  # adapt version number and architecture
```

### On Alpine Linux

You can install [the `bat` package](https://pkgs.alpinelinux.org/packages?name=bat)
from the official sources, provided you have the appropriate repository enabled:

```bash
apk add bat
```

### On Arch Linux

You can install [the `bat` package](https://www.archlinux.org/packages/extra/x86_64/bat/)
from the official sources:

```bash
pacman -S bat
```

### On Fedora

You 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.

```bash
dnf install bat
```

### On Funtoo Linux

You can install [the `bat` package](https://github.com/funtoo/dev-kit/tree/1.4-release/sys-apps/bat) from dev-kit.

```bash
emerge sys-apps/bat
```

### On Gentoo Linux

You can install [the `bat` package](https://packages.gentoo.org/packages/sys-apps/bat)
from the official sources:

```bash
emerge sys-apps/bat
```

### On Void Linux

You can install `bat` via xbps-install:
```bash
xbps-install -S bat
```

### On Termux

You can install `bat` via pkg:
```bash
pkg install bat
```

### On FreeBSD

You can install a precompiled [`bat` package](https://www.freshports.org/textproc/bat) with pkg:

```bash
pkg install bat
```

or build it on your own from the FreeBSD ports:

```bash
cd /usr/ports/textproc/bat
make install
```

### On OpenBSD

You can install `bat` package using [`pkg_add(1)`](https://man.openbsd.org/pkg_add.1):

```bash
pkg_add bat
```

### Via nix

You can install `bat` using the [nix package manager](https://nixos.org/nix):

```bash
nix-env -i bat
```

### On openSUSE

You can install `bat` with zypper:

```bash
zypper install bat
```

### Via snap package

There is currently no recommended snap package available.
Existing packages may be available, but are not officially supported and may contain [issues](https://github.com/sharkdp/bat/issues/1519).

### On macOS (or Linux) via Homebrew

You can install `bat` with [Homebrew](https://formulae.brew.sh/formula/bat):

```bash
brew install bat
```

### On macOS via MacPorts

Or install `bat` with [MacPorts](https://ports.macports.org/port/bat/summary):

```bash
port install bat
```

### On Windows

There are a few options to install `bat` on Windows. Once you have installed `bat`,
take a look at the ["Using `bat` on Windows"](#using-bat-on-windows) section.

#### Prerequisites

You will need to install the [Visual C++ Redistributable](https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/2977003/the-latest-supported-visual-c-downloads) package.

#### With WinGet

You can install `bat` via [WinGet](https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/package-manager/winget):

```bash
winget install sharkdp.bat
```

#### With Chocolatey

You can install `bat` via [Chocolatey](https://chocolatey.org/packages/Bat):
```bash
choco install bat
```

#### With Scoop

You can install `bat` via [scoop](https://scoop.sh/):
```bash
scoop install bat
```

#### From prebuilt binaries:

You can download prebuilt binaries from the [Release page](https://github.com/sharkdp/bat/releases),

You will need to install the [Visual C++ Redistributable](https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/help/2977003/the-latest-supported-visual-c-downloads) package.

### From binaries

Check out the [Release page](https://github.com/sharkdp/bat/releases) for
prebuilt versions of `bat` for many different architectures. Statically-linked
binaries are also available: look for archives with `musl` in the file name.

### From source

If you want to build `bat` from source, you need Rust 1.70.0 or
higher. You can then use `cargo` to build everything:

```bash
cargo install --locked bat
```

Note that additional files like the man page or shell completion
files can not be installed in this way. They will be generated by `cargo` and should be available in the cargo target folder (under `build`).

## Customization

### Highlighting theme

Use `bat --list-themes` to get a list of all available themes for syntax
highlighting. To select the `TwoDark` theme, call `bat` with the
`--theme=TwoDark` option or set the `BAT_THEME` environment variable to
`TwoDark`. Use `export BAT_THEME="TwoDark"` in your shell's startup file to
make the change permanent. Alternatively, use `bat`s
[configuration file](https://github.com/sharkdp/bat#configuration-file).

If you want to preview the different themes on a custom file, you can use
the following command (you need [`fzf`](https://github.com/junegunn/fzf) for this):
```bash
bat --list-themes | fzf --preview="bat --theme={} --color=always /path/to/file"
```

`bat` looks good on a dark background by default. However, if your termin