NAME

SYNOPSIS

DESCRIPTION

It's easily possible to enhance highlight's database of programming languages and colour themes. See the README file for details.

GENERAL OPTIONS

-B, --batch-recursive=<wildcard>

convert all files matching the wildcard (uses recursive search)

-D, --data-dir=<path>

set path to highlight data directory

--config-file=<file>

set path to a lang or theme file

-h, --help[=topic]

print this help or a topic description <topic> = [syntax, theme, plugin, config]

-i, --input=<file>

name of input file

-o, --output=<file>

name of output file

-d, --outdir=<output directory>

name of output directory

-P, --progress

print progress bar in batch mode

-S, --syntax=<type|path>

set type of source code, necessary if input file suffix is missing. The syntax may also be defined as path of the language file.

--syntax-by-name=<name>

specify type of source code by given name. Will not read a file of this name, useful for stdin and to determine the syntax of the file before piping its content to highlight. This option overrides --syntax.

--syntax-supported

test if the given syntax can be loaded and print the result (assumes -S or --syntax-by-name)

-v, --verbose

print debug info to stderr; repeat to show more information

-q, --quiet

suppress progress info in batch mode

--force[=syntax]

generate output if input syntax is unknown. The fallback syntax may be set here, Plain Text is default.

--list-scripts=<type>

list installed scripts <type> = [langs, themes, plugins]

--list-cat=<categories>

filter the scripts by the given categories (example: --list-cat='source;script')

--max-size=<size>

set maximum input file size (examples: 512M, 1G; default: 256M)

--plug-in=<script>

execute Lua plug-in script; repeat option to apply multiple plug-ins

--plug-in-param

set plug-in input parameter. This might be an input file name (ie. 'tags').

--print-config

print path configuration

--print-style

print stylesheet only (see --style-outfile)

--skip=<list>

ignore listed unknown file types (example: --skip='bak;c~;h~')

--stdout

output to stdout (batch mode, --print-style)

--validate-input

test if input is a valid text file

--version

print version and copyright info

OUTPUT FORMATTING OPTIONS

-O, --out-format=<format>

output file in given format <format>=[html, xhtml, latex, tex, rtf, odt, ansi, xterm256, truecolor, bbcode, pango, svg]

-c, --style-outfile=<file>

name of style definition file

-T, --doc-title

document title

-e, --style-infile=<file>

name of file to be included in style-outfile

-f, --fragment

omit header and footer of the output document (see --keep-injections)

-F, --reformat=<style>

reformat output in given style. <style>=[allman, gnu, google, horstmann, java, kr, linux, lisp, mozilla, otbs, pico, vtk, ratliff, stroustrup, webkit, whitesmith]

-I, --include-style

include style definition in output

-J, --line-length=<num>

line length before wrapping (see -V, -W)

-j, --line-number-length=<num>

line number length incl. left padding. Default length: 5

-k, --font=<font>

set font (specific to output format)

-K, --font-size=<num?>

set font size (specific to output format)

-l, --line-numbers

print line numbers in output file

-m, --line-number-start=<cnt>

start line numbering with cnt (assumes -l)

--line-range=<start-end>

output only lines from number <start> to <end>

-s, --style=<style name|path>

set highlighting style (theme). Add 'base16/' prefix to use a Base16 theme. The theme may also be defined as path of the theme file.

-t --replace-tabs=<num>

replace tabs by num spaces

-u, --encoding=<enc>

set output encoding which matches input file encoding; omit encoding information if set to "NONE"

-V, --wrap-simple

wrap lines after 80 (default) characters without indenting function parameters and statements.

-W, --wrap

wrap lines after 80 (default) characters (use with caution).

-z, --zeroes

fill leading space of line numbers with zeroes

--isolate

output each syntax token in separate tags (verbose output)

--keep-injections

output plug-in header and footer injections in spite of -f

--kw-case=<upper|lower|capitalize>

output all keywords in given case if language is not case sensitive

--no-trailing-nl[=mode]

omit trailing newline. If mode is "empty-file", omit only for empty input

--no-version-info

omit version info comment

--wrap-no-numbers

omit line numbers of wrapped lines (assumes -l)

(X)HTML OPTIONS

-a, --anchors

attach anchors to line numbers (HTML only)

-y, --anchor-prefix=<str>

set anchor name prefix

-N, --anchor-filename

use input file name as anchor name

-C, --print-index

print index file with links to all output files

-n, --ordered-list

print lines as ordered list items

--class-name=<str>

set CSS class name prefix; omit class name if set to "NONE"

--inline-css

output CSS within each tag (verbose output)

--enclose-pre

enclose fragmented output with pre tag (assumes -f)

LATEX OPTIONS

-b, --babel

disable Babel package shorthands

-r, --replace-quotes

replace double quotes by \dq

--beamer

adapt output for the Beamer package

--pretty-symbols

improve appearance of brackets and other symbols

RTF OPTIONS

--page-color

include page color attributes

-x, --page-size=<size>

set page size, <size>=[a3, a4, a5, b4, b5, b6, letter]

--char-styles

include character stylesheets

SVG OPTIONS

--height=<h>

set image height (units allowed)

--width=<w>

set image size (see --height)

TERMINAL ESCAPE OUTPUT OPTIONS (XTERM256 OR TRUECOLOR)

--canvas[=width]

set background colour padding (default: 80)

LANGUAGE SERVER OPTIONS

--ls-profile=<server>

load LSP configuration from lsp.conf

--ls-delay=<ms>

set server initialization delay in milliseconds

--ls-exec=<bin>

set server executable name

--ls-option=<option>

set server CLI option (can be repeated)

--ls-hover

execute hover requests (HTML output only)

--ls-semantic

query server for semantic token types (requires LSP 3.16)

--ls-syntax=<lang>

set syntax which is understood by the server

--ls-syntax-error

retrieve syntax error information (assumes --ls-hover or --ls-semantic)

--ls-workspace=<dir>

set workspace directory to initialize the server

ENV VARIABLES

HIGHLIGHT_DATADIR

sets the path to highlight's configuration scripts

HIGHLIGHT_OPTIONS

may contain command line options, but no input file paths.

HINTS

Default output format: xterm256 or truecolor if appropriate, HTML otherwise.

Style definitions are stored in highlight.css (HTML, XHTML, SVG) or highlight.sty (LaTeX, TeX) if neither -c nor -I is given. For CSS, definitions are stored in the output document header with -I, if -f is also given there will be no style definitions.

Reformatting code (-F) will only work with C, C++, C# and Java input files.

LSP features require absolute input paths and disable reformatting (-F).

BUGS

FILES

Documentation files are stored in /usr/share/doc/highlight/ , configuration files in /etc/highlight/.

See README how to install own scripts in the home directory.

EXAMPLES

highlight -o hello.html -i hello.c

highlight -o hello.html hello.c

highlight -o hello.html -S c < hello.c

highlight -S c < hello.c > hello.html

Note that a file highlight.css is created in the current directory.

Batch file processing:

highlight --out-format=xhtml -B '*.cpp' -d /home/you/html_code/

converts all *.cpp files in the current directory and its subdirectories to xhtml files, and stores the output in /home/you/html_code.

highlight --out-format=latex * -d /home/you/latex_code/

converts all files to LaTeX, stored in /home/you/latex_code/.

Use --quiet to improve performance of batch file processing (recommended for usage in shell scripts).

Use highlight --out-format=xterm256 <yourfile> | less -R to display a source file in a terminal.

Run highlight --list-scripts=langs to see all supported syntax types.

AUTHORS

SEE ALSO