1highlight(1) user documentation highlight(1)
2
6 Highlight - a universal sourcecode to formatted text converter
7
10 highlight [OPTIONS]... [FILES]...
11
14 Highlight converts sourcecode to HTML, XHTML, RTF, ODT, LaTeX, TeX,
15 BBCode, Pango markup, SVG, XTERM or ANSI escape sequences. There are
16 several colour themes available. Highlight recognizes keywords, num‐
17 bers, strings, comments, symbols and preprocessor directives. It sup‐
18 ports about 180 programming languages, which are defined in Lua
19 scripts.
20 It's easily possible to enhance highlight's database of programming
23 languages and colour themes. See the README file for details.
24
26 -B, --batch-recursive=<wildcard>
27 convert all files matching the wildcard (uses recursive search)
28 -D, --data-dir=<path>
30 set path to highlight data directory
31 --config-file=<file>
33 set path to a lang or theme file
34 -h, --help[=topic]
36 print this help or a topic description
37 <topic> = [syntax, theme, plugin, config]
38 -i, --input=<file>
40 name of input file
41 -o, --output=<file>
43 name of output file
44 -d, --outdir=<output directory>
46 name of output directory
47 -P, --progress
49 print progress bar in batch mode
50 -S, --syntax=<type>
52 set type of source code, necessary if input file suffix is miss‐
53 ing
54 --syntax-by-name=<name>
56 specify type of source code by given name. Will not read a file
57 of this name, useful for stdin and to determine the syntax of
58 the file before piping its content to highlight. This option
59 overrides --syntax.
60 -v, --verbose
62 print debug info to stderr
63 -q, --quiet
65 suppress progress info in batch mode
66 --force
68 generate output if input syntax is unknown
69 --list-scripts=<type>
71 list installed scripts <type> = [langs, themes, plugins]
72 --list-cat=<categories>
74 filter the scripts by the given categories (example: --list-
75 cat='source;script' )
76 --plug-in=<script>
78 execute Lua plug-in script; repeat option to apply multiple
79 plug-ins
80 --plug-in-param
82 set plug-in input parameter. This might be an input file name
83 (ie. 'tags').
84 --print-config
86 print path configuration
87 --print-style
89 print stylesheet only (see --style-outfile)
90 --skip=<list>
92 ignore listed unknown file types (example: --skip='bak;c~;h~')
93 --start-nested=<lang>
95 define nested language which starts input without opening delim‐
96 iter
97 --stdout
99 output to stdout (batch mode, --print-style)
100 --validate-input
102 test if input is a valid text file
103 --version
105 print version and copyright info
106
109 -O, --out-format=<format>
110 output file in given format <format>=[html, xhtml, latex, tex,
111 rtf, odt, ansi, xterm256, truecolor, bbcode, pango, svg]
112 -c, --style-outfile=<file>
114 name of style definition file
115 -T, --doc-title
117 document title
118 -e, --style-infile=<file>
120 name of file to be included in style-outfile
121 -f, --fragment
123 omit header and footer of the output document (see --keep-injec‐
124 tions)
125 -F, --reformat=<style>
127 reformat output in given style. <style>=[allman, gnu, google,
128 horstmann, java, kr, linux, lisp, mozilla, otbs, pico, vtk,
129 ratliff, stroustrup, webkit, whitesmith, user]
130 The user style does not apply a predefined scheme. Use --refor‐
132 mat-option to define reformatting behaviour.
133 --reformat-option=<opt>
135 apply an astyle cmd line option (assumes -F). Can be repeated to
136 override settings of the chosen indentation scheme.
137 -I, --include-style
139 include style definition in output
140 -J, --line-length=<num>
142 line length before wrapping (see -V, -W)
143 -j, --line-number-length=<num>
145 line number length incl. left padding. Default length: 5
146 -k, --font=<font>
148 set font (specific to output format)
149 -K, --font-size=<num?>
151 set font size (specific to output format)
152 -l, --line-numbers
154 print line numbers in output file
155 -m, --line-number-start=<cnt>
157 start line numbering with cnt (assumes -l)
158 --line-range=<start-end>
160 output only lines from number <start> to <end>
161 -s, --style=<style name>
163 set highlighting style (theme). See --base16.
164 -t --replace-tabs=<num>
166 replace tabs by num spaces
167 -u, --encoding=<enc>
169 set output encoding which matches input file encoding; omit
170 encoding information if set to "NONE"
171 -V, --wrap-simple
173 wrap lines after 80 (default) characters without indenting func‐
174 tion parameters and statements.
175 -W, --wrap
177 wrap lines after 80 (default) characters (use with caution).
178 -z, --zeroes
180 fill leading space of line numbers with zeroes
181 --base16
183 use a theme of the Base16 collection. Use a classic theme other‐
184 wise.
185 --delim-cr
187 set CR as end-of-line delimiter (MacOS 9)
188 --keep-injections
190 output plug-in header and footer injections in spite of -f
191 --kw-case=<upper|lower|capitalize>
193 output all keywords in given case if language is not case sensi‐
194 tive
195 --no-trailing-nl
197 omit trailing newline
198 --no-version-info
200 omit version info comment
201 --wrap-no-numbers
203 omit line numbers of wrapped lines (assumes -l)
204
207 -a, --anchors
208 attach anchors to line numbers (HTML only)
209 -y, --anchor-prefix=<str>
211 set anchor name prefix
212 -N, --anchor-filename
214 use input file name as anchor name
215 -C, --print-index
217 print index file with links to all output files
218 -n, --ordered-list
220 print lines as ordered list items
221 --class-name=<str>
223 set CSS class name prefix; omit class name if set to "NONE"
224 --inline-css
226 output CSS within each tag (verbose output)
227 --enclose-pre
229 enclose fragmented output with pre tag (assumes -f)
230
233 -b, --babel
234 disable Babel package shorthands
235 -r, --replace-quotes
237 replace double quotes by \dq
238 --beamer
240 adapt output for the Beamer package
241 --pretty-symbols
243 improve appearance of brackets and other symbols
244
247 --page-color
248 include page color attributes
249 -x, --page-size=<size>
251 set page size, <size>=[a3, a4, a5, b4, b5, b6, letter]
252 --char-styles
254 include character stylesheets
255
258 --height=<h>
259 set image height (units allowed)
260 --width=<w>
262 set image size (see --height)
263
266 --canvas[=width]
267 set background colour padding (default: 80)
268
271 --doc create stand alone document
272 --no-doc
274 cancel the --doc option
275 --css=filename
277 the external style sheet filename
278 --src-lang=STRING
280 source language
281 -t, --tab=INT
283 specify tab length
284 -n, --line-number[=0]
286 number all output lines, optional padding
287 --line-number-ref[=p]
289 number all output lines and generate an anchor, made of the
290 specified prefix
291 p + the line number (default='line')
292 --output-dir=path
294 output directory
295 --failsafe
297 if no language definition is found for the input, it is simply
298 copied to the output
299
302 Highlight recognizes these variables:
303 HIGHLIGHT_DATADIR
305 sets the path to highlight's configuration scripts
306 HIGHLIGHT_OPTIONS
308 may contain command line options, but no input file paths.
309
312 If no in- or output files are specified, stdin and stdout will be used
313 for in- or output. Since version 3.44, reading from stdin can also be
314 triggered by the '-' option.
315 Default output format: xterm256 or truecolor if appropriate, HTML oth‐
317 erwise.
318 Style definitions are stored in highlight.css (HTML, XHTML, SVG) or
320 highlight.sty (LaTeX, TeX) if neither -c nor -I is given. For CSS, def‐
321 initions are stored in the output document header with -I, if -f is
322 also given there will be no style definitions.
323 Reformatting code (-F) will only work with C, C++, C# and Java input
325 files.
326
328 Wrapping lines with -V or -W will cause faulty highlighting of long
329 single line comments and directives. Using line-range might interfere
330 with multi line syntax elements. Use with caution.
331
333 The configuration files are stored in /usr/share/highlight/. Language
334 definitions, themes and plugins are located in subdirectories.
335 Documentation files are stored in /usr/share/doc/highlight/ , configu‐
337 ration files in /etc/highlight/.
338 See README how to install own scripts in the home directory.
340
342 Single file conversion:
343 highlight -o hello.html -i hello.c
345 highlight -o hello.html hello.c
347 highlight -o hello.html -S c < hello.c
349 highlight -S c < hello.c > hello.html
351 Note that a file highlight.css is created in the current directory.
353 Batch file processing:
355 highlight --out-format=xhtml -B '*.cpp' -d /home/you/html_code/
357 converts all *.cpp files in the current directory and its subdirecto‐
359 ries to xhtml files, and stores the output in /home/you/html_code.
360 highlight --out-format=latex * -d /home/you/latex_code/
362 converts all files to LaTeX, stored in /home/you/latex_code/.
364 Use --quiet to improve performance of batch file processing (recom‐
366 mended for usage in shell scripts).
367 Use highlight --out-format=xterm256 <yourfile> | less -R to display a
369 source file in a terminal.
370 Run highlight --list-scripts=langs to see all supported syntax types.
372
375 Andre Simon <as@andre-simon.de>
376
378 README file and highlight webpage at http://www.andre-simon.de/.
379Andre Simon 2019-03-11 highlight(1)