1highlight(1) user documentation highlight(1)
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6 Highlight - a universal sourcecode to formatted text converter
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10 highlight [OPTIONS]... [FILES]...
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14 Highlight converts sourcecode to HTML, XHTML, RTF, LaTeX, TeX, BBCode,
15 SVG, XTERM or ANSI escape sequences. There are several colour themes
16 available. Highlight recognizes keywords, numbers, strings, comments,
17 symbols and preprocessor directives. It supports about 160 programming
18 languages, which are defined in Lua scripts.
19 It's easily possible to enhance highlight's database of programming
22 languages and colour themes. See the README file for details.
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25 -B, --batch-recursive=<wildcard>
26 convert all files matching the wildcard (uses recursive search)
27 -D, --data-dir=<path>
29 set path to highlight data directory
30 --add-config-dir=<path>
32 set path to an additional configuration directory
33 --config-file=<file>
35 set path to a lang or theme file
36 -h, --help
38 print this help
39 -i, --input=<file>
41 name of input file
42 -o, --output=<file>
44 name of output file
45 -d, --outdir=<output directory>
47 name of output directory
48 -P, --progress
50 print progress bar in batch mode
51 -S, --syntax=<type>
53 set type of source code, necessary if input file suffix is miss‐
54 ing
55 -v, --verbose
57 print debug info to stderr
58 -p, --list-langs
60 list installed language definitions
61 -q, --quiet
63 supress progress info in batch mode
64 -w, --list-themes
66 list installed themes
67 --force
69 generate output if input syntax is unknown
70 --plug-in=<script>
72 execute Lua plug-in script; repeat option to apply multiple
73 plug-ins
74 --print-config
76 print path configuration
77 --print-style
79 print stylesheet only (see --style-outfile)
80 --skip=<list>
82 ignore listed unknown file types (Example: --skip='bak;c~;h~')
83 --start-nested=<lang>
85 define nested language which starts input without opening delim‐
86 iter
87 --validate-input
89 test if input is a valid text file
90 --version
92 print version and copyright info
93
96 -O, --out-format=<format>
97 output file in given format <format>=[html, xhtml, latex, tex,
98 rtf, ansi, xterm256, bbcode, svg]
99 -c, --style-outfile=<file>
101 name of style definition file or output to stdout, if "stdout"
102 is given as file argument
103 -T, --doc-title
105 document title
106 -e, --style-infile=<file>
108 name of file to be included in style-outfile
109 -f, --fragment
111 omit header and footer of the output document
112 -F, --reformat=<style>
114 reformat output in given style. <style>=[allman, banner, gnu,
115 java, kr, linux, stroustrup, whitesmith]
116 -I, --include-style
118 include style definition in output
119 -J, --line-length=<num>
121 line length before wrapping (see -W, -V)
122 -j, --line-number-length=<num>
124 line number length incl. left padding
125 -k, --font=<font>
127 set font (specific to output format)
128 -K, --font-size=<num?>
130 set font size (specific to output format)
131 -l, --line-numbers
133 print line numbers in output file
134 -m, --line-number-start=<cnt>
136 start line numbering with cnt (assumes -l)
137 -s, --style=<style name>
139 set highlighting style (see --list-themes)
140 -t --replace-tabs=<num>
142 replace tabs by num spaces
143 -u, --encoding=<enc>
145 set output encoding which matches input file encoding; omit
146 encoding information if enc is "NONE"
147 -V, --wrap-simple
149 wrap long lines without indenting function parameters and state‐
150 ments
151 -W, --wrap
153 wrap long lines (use with caution)
154 -z, --zeroes
156 fill leading space of line numbers with zeroes
157 --kw-case=<upper|lower|capitalize>
159 output all keywords in given case if language is not case sensi‐
160 tive
161 --delim-cr
163 set CR as end-of-line delimiter (MacOS 9)
164 --no-trailing-nl
166 omit trailing newline
167
170 -a, --anchors
171 attach anchors to line numbers (HTML only)
172 -y, --anchor-prefix=<str>
174 set anchor name prefix
175 -N, --anchor-filename
177 use input file name as anchor name
178 -C, --print-index
180 print index file with links to all output files
181 -n, --ordered-list
183 print lines as ordered list items
184 --class-name=<str>
186 set CSS class name prefix
187 --inline-css
189 output CSS within each tag (verbose output)
190 --enclose-pre
192 enclose fragmented output with pre tag (assumes -f)
193 --ctags-file[=<file>]
195 read ctags file to include meta information as tooltips (default
196 value: tags)
197
200 -b, --babel
201 disable Babel package shorthands
202 -r, --replace-quotes
204 replace double quotes by \dq
205 --pretty-symbols
207 improve appearance of brackets and other symbols
208
211 -x, --page-size=<size>
212 set page size, <size>=[a3, a4, a5, b4, b5, b6, letter]
213 --char-styles
215 include character stylesheets
216
219 --height=<h>
220 set image height (units allowed)
221 --width=<w>
223 set image size (see --height)
224
227 --doc create stand alone document
228 --no-doc
230 cancel the --doc option
231 --css=filename
233 the external style sheet filename
234 --src-lang=STRING
236 source language
237 -t, --tab=INT
239 specify tab length
240 -n, --line-number[=0]
242 number all output lines, optional padding
243 --line-number-ref[=p]
245 number all output lines and generate an anchor, made of the
246 specified prefix
247 p + the line number (default='line')
248 --output-dir=path
250 output directory
251 --failsafe
253 if no language definition is found for the input, it is simply
254 copied to the output
255 If no in- or output files are specified, stdin and stdout will be used
258 for in- or output. HTML will be generated unless an other output for‐
259 mat is given. Style definitions are stored in highlight.css (HTML,
260 XHTML, SVG) or highlight.sty (LaTeX, TeX) if neither -c nor -I is
261 given. Reformatting code (-F) will only work with C, C++, C# and Java
262 input files.
263
265 The wrapping options might cause faulty highlighting of multi line com‐
266 ments.
267
269 The parsing information of the programming languages is stored in
270 /usr/share/highlight/langDefs/. You may enhance highlight's parsing
271 capabilities by adding more *.lang - files to this directory. You can
272 also define other directories with --data-dir. Documentation files are
273 stored in /usr/share/doc/highlight/ , configuration files in /etc/high‐
274 light/.
275
278 Single file conversion:
279 highlight -o hello.html -i hello.c
281 highlight -o hello.html hello.c
283 highlight -o hello.html -S c < hello.c
285 highlight -S c < hello.c > hello.html
287 Note that a file highlight.css is created in the current directory.
289 Batch file processing:
291 highlight --out-format=xhtml -B '*.cpp' -d /home/you/html_code/
293 converts all *.cpp files in the current directory and its subdirecto‐
295 ries to xhtml files, and stores the output in /home/you/html_code.
296 highlight --out-format=latex * -d /home/you/latex_code/
298 converts all files to LaTeX, stored in /home/you/latex_code/.
300 Use --quiet to improve performance of batch file processing (recom‐
302 mended for usage in shell scripts).
303 Use highlight --out-format=xterm256 <yourfile> | less -R to display a
305 source file in a terminal.
306
308 Andre Simon <as@andre-simon.de>
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311 README file and highlight webpage at http://www.andre-simon.de/.
312Andre Simon 2010-05-28 highlight(1)