A cat(1) clone with syntax highlighting and Git integration.
Key Features •
How To Use •
Installation •
Customization •
Project goals, alternatives
[English]
[中文]
[日本語]
[한국어]
[Русский]
Syntax highlighting
bat supports syntax highlighting for a large number of programming and markup
languages:
Git integration
bat communicates with git to show modifications with respect to the index
(see left sidebar):
Show non-printable characters
You can use the -A/--show-all option to show and highlight non-printable
characters:
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
bat README.md
Display multiple files at once
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)
curl -s https://sh.rustup.rs | bat
Read from stdin, specify the language explicitly
yaml2json .travis.yml | json_pp | bat -l json
Show and highlight non-printable characters:
bat -A /etc/hosts
Use it as a cat replacement:
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'.
fzf
You can use bat as a previewer for 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:
fzf --preview "bat --color=always --style=numbers --line-range=:500 {}"
For more information, see fzf's README.
find or fd
You can use the -exec option of find to preview all search results with bat:
find … -exec bat {} +
If you happen to use fd, you can use the -X/--exec-batch option to do the same:
fd … -X bat
ripgrep
With batgrep, bat can be used as the printer for ripgrep search results.
batgrep needle src/
tail -f
bat can be combined with tail -f to continuously monitor a given file with syntax highlighting.
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:
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:
batdiff() {
git diff --name-only --relative --diff-filter=d -z | xargs -0 bat --diff
}
If you prefer to use this as a separate tool, check out batdiff in bat-extras.
If you are looking for more support for git and diff operations, check out 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:
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:
export MANPAGER="bat -plman"
man 2 select
(on some older Debian or Ubuntu releases, the executable is named batcat instead of bat)
If you prefer to have this bundled in a new command, you can also use batman.
Note that the Manpage syntax is developed in this repository and still needs some work.
prettier / shfmt / rustfmt
The prettybat 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:
# 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:
alias -g -- -h='-h 2>&1 | bat --language=help --style=plain'
alias -g -- --help='--help 2>&1 | bat --language=help --style=plain'
For fish, you can use abbreviations:
abbr -a --position anywhere -- --help '--help | bat -plhelp'
abbr -a --position anywhere -- -h '-h | bat -plhelp'
This way, you can keep on using cp --help, but get colorized help pages.
[!TIP]
To remove these abbreviations later, run:
abbr -e -- --help
abbr -e -- -h
The -- before the abbreviation name is required because --help and -h start with dashes, which would otherwise be interpreted as flags to abbr itself.
Be aware that in some cases, -h may not be a shorthand of --help (for example with ls). In cases where you need to use -h
as a command argument you can prepend \ to the argument (eg. ls \-h) to escape the aliasing defined above.
Please report any issues with the help syntax in this repository.
Installation
On Ubuntu (using apt)
... and other Debian-based Linux distributions.
bat is available on Ubuntu since 20.04 ("Focal") and Debian since August 2021 (Debian 11 - "Bullseye").
If your Ubuntu/Debian installation is new enough you can simply run:
sudo apt install bat
Important: On some older Ubuntu/Debian releases, the executable is installed as batcat instead of bat (due to a name
clash with another package). On newer releases, the executable is available as bat. If bat --version does not work after installation, try batcat --version instead. 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:
mkdir -p ~/.local/bin
ln -s /usr/bin/batcat ~/.local/bin/bat
an example alias for batcat as bat:
alias bat="batcat"
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 and install it via:
sudo dpkg -i bat_0.18.3_amd64.deb # adapt version number and architecture
On Alpine Linux
You can install the bat package
from the official sources, provided you have the appropriate repository enabled:
apk add bat
On Arch Linux
You can install the bat package
from the official sources:
pacman -S bat
On Fedora
You can install the bat package from the official sources:
dnf install bat
On Gentoo Linux
You can install the bat package
from the official sources:
emerge sys-apps/bat
On FreeBSD
You can install a precompiled bat package with pkg:
pkg install bat
or build it on your own from the FreeBSD ports:
cd /usr/ports/textproc/bat
make install
On OpenBSD
You can install bat package using pkg_add(1):
pkg_add bat
Via nix
You can install bat using the nix package manager:
nix-env -i bat
On openSUSE
You can install bat with zypper:
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.
On macOS (or Linux) via Homebrew
You can install bat with Homebrew:
brew install bat
On macOS via MacPorts
Or install bat with MacPorts:
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" section.
Prerequisites
You will need to install the Visual C++ Redistributable
With WinGet
You can install bat via WinGet:
winget install sharkdp.bat
With Chocolatey
You can install bat via Chocolatey:
choco install bat
With Scoop
You can install bat via scoop:
scoop install bat
From prebuilt binaries:
You can download prebuilt binaries from the Release page,
You will need to install the Visual C++ Redistributable package.
From binaries
Check out the Release page 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 1.79.0 or
higher. You can then use cargo to build everything:
From local source
cargo install --path . --locked
[!NOTE]
The --path . above specifies the directory of the source code and NOT where bat will be installed.
For more information see the docs for cargo install.
From crates.io
cargo install --locked bat
Note that additional files like the man page or shell completion
files can not be installed automatically in both these ways.
If installing from a local source, they will be generated by cargo
and should be available in the cargo target folder under build.
Furthermore, shell completions are also available by running:
bat --completion <shell>
# see --help for supported shells
Customization
Highlighting theme
Use bat --list-themes to get a list of all available themes for syntax
highlighting. By default, bat uses Monokai Extended or Monokai Extended Light
for dark and light themes respectively. 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.
If you want to preview the different themes on a custom file, you can use
the following command (you need fzf for this):
bat --list-themes | fzf --preview="bat --theme={} --color=always /path/to/file"
bat automatically picks a fitting theme depending on your terminal's background color.
You can use the --theme-dark / --theme-light options or the BAT_THEME_DARK / BAT_THEME_LIGHT environment variables
to customize the themes used. This is especially useful if you frequently switch between dark and light mode.
You can also use a custom theme by following the
'Adding new themes' section below.
8-bit themes
bat has three themes that always use 8-bit colors,
even when truecolor support is available:
ansi looks decent on any terminal. It uses 3-bit colors: black, red, green,
yellow, blue, magenta, cyan, and white.base16 is designed for base16 terminal themes. It uses
4-bit colors (3-bit colors plus bright variants) in accordance with the
base16 styling guidelines.base16-256 is designed for tinted-shell.
It replaces certain bright colors with 8-bit colors from 16 to 21. Do not use this simply
because you have a 256-color terminal but are not using tinted-shell.
Although these themes are more restricted, they have three advantages over truecolor themes. They:
- Enjoy maximum compatibility. Some terminal utilities do not support more than 3-bit colors.
- Adapt to terminal theme changes. Even for already printed output.
- Visually harmonize better with other terminal software.
Output style
You can use the --style option to control the appearance of bat's output.
You can use --style=numbers,changes, for example, to show only Git changes
and line numbers but no grid and no file header. Set the BAT_STYLE environment
variable to make these changes permanent or use bat's
configuration file.
By default, bat enables changes, grid, header-filename, numbers, and snip.
The available pre-defined styles are:
| Style |
Description |
default |
Enables the recommended style components listed above. |
full |
Enables all available components. |
auto |
Same as default, unless the output is piped. |
plain |
Disables all available components. |
The available individual components are:
| Component |
Description |
changes |
Show Git modification markers. |
header |
Alias for header-filename. |
header-filename |
Show filenames before the content. |
header-filesize |
Show file sizes before the content. |
grid |
Vertical/horizontal lines to separate the side bar and header from the content. |
rule |
Horizontal lines to delimit files. |
numbers |
Show line numbers in the side bar. |
snip |
Draw separation lines between distinct line ranges. |
[!tip]
If you specify a default style in bat's config file, you can change which components
are displayed during a single run of bat using the --style command-line argument.
By prefixing a component with + or -, it can be added or removed from the current style.
For example, if your config contains --style=full,-snip, you can run bat with
--style=-grid,+snip to remove the grid and add back the snip component.
Or, if you want to override the styles completely, you use --style=numbers to
only show the line numbers.
Decorations
By default, bat only shows decorations (such as line numbers, file headers, grid borders, etc.) when outputting to an interactive terminal. You can control this behavior with the --decorations option. Use --decorations=always to show decorations even when piping output to another command, or --decorations=never to disable them entirely. Possible values are auto (default), never, and always.
There is also the --force-colorization option, which is an alias for --decorations=always --color=always. This is useful if you want to keep colorization and decorations when piping bat's output to another program.
Adding new syntaxes / language definitions
Should you find that a particular syntax is not available within bat, you can follow these
instructions to easily add new syntaxes to your current bat installation.
bat uses the excellent syntect
library for syntax highlighting. syntect can read any
Sublime Text .sublime-syntax file
and theme.
A good resource for finding Sublime Syntax packages is Package Control. Once you found a
syntax:
Create a folder with syntax definition files:
mkdir -p "$(bat --config-dir)/syntaxes"
cd "$(bat --config-dir)/syntaxes"
# Put new '.sublime-syntax' language definition files
# in this folder (or its subdirectories), for example:
git clone https://github.com/tellnobody1/sublime-purescript-syntax
Now use the following command to parse these files into a binary cache:
bat cache --build
Finally, use bat --list-languages to check if the new languages are available.
If you ever want to go back to the default settings, call:
bat cache --clear
If you think that a specific syntax should be included in bat by default, please
consider opening a "syntax request" ticket after reading the policies and
instructions here: Open Syntax Request.
Adding new themes
This works very similar to how we add new syntax de
bat is a cat(1) clone that prints files in the terminal with syntax highlighting for a large number of programming and markup languages, plus Git modification markers in the sidebar.