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, ODT, LaTeX, TeX, BB‐
15 Code, 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 <topic> = [syntax, theme,
37 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|path>
52 set type of source code, necessary if input file suffix is miss‐
53 ing. The syntax may also be defined as path of the language
54 file.
55 --syntax-by-name=<name>
57 specify type of source code by given name. Will not read a file
58 of this name, useful for stdin and to determine the syntax of
59 the file before piping its content to highlight. This option
60 overrides --syntax.
61 --syntax-supported
63 test if the given syntax can be loaded and print the result
64 (assumes -S or --syntax-by-name)
65 -v, --verbose
67 print debug info to stderr; repeat to show more information
68 -q, --quiet
70 suppress progress info in batch mode
71 --force[=syntax]
73 generate output if input syntax is unknown. The fallback syntax
74 may be set here, Plain Text is default.
75 --list-scripts=<type>
77 list installed scripts <type> = [langs, themes, plugins]
78 --list-cat=<categories>
80 filter the scripts by the given categories (example: --list-
81 cat='source;script')
82 --max-size=<size>
84 set maximum input file size (examples: 512M, 1G; default: 256M)
85 --plug-in=<script>
87 execute Lua plug-in script; repeat option to apply multiple
88 plug-ins
89 --plug-in-param
91 set plug-in input parameter. This might be an input file name
92 (ie. 'tags').
93 --print-config
95 print path configuration
96 --print-style
98 print stylesheet only (see --style-outfile)
99 --skip=<list>
101 ignore listed unknown file types (example: --skip='bak;c~;h~')
102 --stdout
104 output to stdout (batch mode, --print-style)
105 --validate-input
107 test if input is a valid text file
108 --version
110 print version and copyright info
111
114 -O, --out-format=<format>
115 output file in given format <format>=[html, xhtml, latex, tex,
116 rtf, odt, ansi, xterm256, truecolor, bbcode, pango, svg]
117 -c, --style-outfile=<file>
119 name of style definition file
120 -T, --doc-title
122 document title
123 -e, --style-infile=<file>
125 name of file to be included in style-outfile
126 -f, --fragment
128 omit header and footer of the output document (see --keep-injec‐
129 tions)
130 -F, --reformat=<style>
132 reformat output in given style. <style>=[allman, gnu, google,
133 horstmann, java, kr, linux, lisp, mozilla, otbs, pico, vtk,
134 ratliff, stroustrup, webkit, whitesmith]
135 -I, --include-style
137 include style definition in output
138 -J, --line-length=<num>
140 line length before wrapping (see -V, -W)
141 -j, --line-number-length=<num>
143 line number length incl. left padding. Default length: 5
144 -k, --font=<font>
146 set font (specific to output format)
147 -K, --font-size=<num?>
149 set font size (specific to output format)
150 -l, --line-numbers
152 print line numbers in output file
153 -m, --line-number-start=<cnt>
155 start line numbering with cnt (assumes -l)
156 --line-range=<start-end>
158 output only lines from number <start> to <end>
159 -s, --style=<style name|path>
161 set highlighting style (theme). Add 'base16/' prefix to use a
162 Base16 theme. The theme may also be defined as path of the theme
163 file.
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 en‐
170 coding 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 --isolate
183 output each syntax token in separate tags (verbose output)
184 --keep-injections
186 output plug-in header and footer injections in spite of -f
187 --kw-case=<upper|lower|capitalize>
189 output all keywords in given case if language is not case sensi‐
190 tive
191 --no-trailing-nl[=mode]
193 omit trailing newline. If mode is "empty-file", omit only for
194 empty input
195 --no-version-info
197 omit version info comment
198 --wrap-no-numbers
200 omit line numbers of wrapped lines (assumes -l)
201
204 -a, --anchors
205 attach anchors to line numbers (HTML only)
206 -y, --anchor-prefix=<str>
208 set anchor name prefix
209 -N, --anchor-filename
211 use input file name as anchor name
212 -C, --print-index
214 print index file with links to all output files
215 -n, --ordered-list
217 print lines as ordered list items
218 --class-name=<str>
220 set CSS class name prefix; omit class name if set to "NONE"
221 --inline-css
223 output CSS within each tag (verbose output)
224 --enclose-pre
226 enclose fragmented output with pre tag (assumes -f)
227
230 -b, --babel
231 disable Babel package shorthands
232 -r, --replace-quotes
234 replace double quotes by \dq
235 --beamer
237 adapt output for the Beamer package
238 --pretty-symbols
240 improve appearance of brackets and other symbols
241
244 --page-color
245 include page color attributes
246 -x, --page-size=<size>
248 set page size, <size>=[a3, a4, a5, b4, b5, b6, letter]
249 --char-styles
251 include character stylesheets
252
255 --height=<h>
256 set image height (units allowed)
257 --width=<w>
259 set image size (see --height)
260
263 --canvas[=width]
264 set background colour padding (default: 80)
265
268 --ls-profile=<server>
269 load LSP configuration from lsp.conf
270 --ls-delay=<ms>
272 set server initialization delay in milliseconds
273 --ls-exec=<bin>
275 set server executable name
276 --ls-option=<option>
278 set server CLI option (can be repeated)
279 --ls-hover
281 execute hover requests (HTML output only)
282 --ls-semantic
284 query server for semantic token types (requires LSP 3.16)
285 --ls-syntax=<lang>
287 set syntax which is understood by the server
288 --ls-syntax-error
290 retrieve syntax error information (assumes --ls-hover or --ls-
291 semantic)
292 --ls-workspace=<dir>
294 set workspace directory to initialize the server
295
298 Highlight recognizes these variables:
299 HIGHLIGHT_DATADIR
301 sets the path to highlight's configuration scripts
302 HIGHLIGHT_OPTIONS
304 may contain command line options, but no input file paths.
305
308 If no in- or output files are specified, stdin and stdout will be used
309 for in- or output. Reading from stdin can also be triggered by the '-'
310 option.
311 Default output format: xterm256 or truecolor if appropriate, HTML oth‐
313 erwise.
314 Style definitions are stored in highlight.css (HTML, XHTML, SVG) or
316 highlight.sty (LaTeX, TeX) if neither -c nor -I is given. For CSS, def‐
317 initions are stored in the output document header with -I, if -f is
318 also given there will be no style definitions.
319 Reformatting code (-F) will only work with C, C++, C# and Java input
321 files.
322 LSP features require absolute input paths and disable reformatting
324 (-F).
325
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 files and http://www.andre-simon.de/.
379Andre Simon 2021-03-27 highlight(1)