highlight(1)                  user documentation                  highlight(1)



NAME
       Highlight - a universal sourcecode to formatted text converter


SYNOPSIS
       highlight [OPTIONS]... [FILES]...


DESCRIPTION
       Highlight converts sourcecode to HTML, XHTML, RTF, ODT, LaTeX, TeX,
       BBCode, Pango markup, SVG, XTERM or ANSI escape sequences.  There are
       several colour themes available.  Highlight recognizes keywords,
       numbers, strings, comments, symbols and preprocessor directives.  It
       supports about 180 programming languages, which are defined in Lua
       scripts.


       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

       --service-mode
              run in service mode, not stopping until signaled

       --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

       --ls-legacy
              do not require a server capabilities response


ENV VARIABLES
       Highlight recognizes these variables:

       HIGHLIGHT_DATADIR
              sets the path to highlight's configuration scripts

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


HINTS
       If no in- or output files are specified, stdin and stdout will be used
       for in- or output.  Reading from stdin can also be triggered by the '-'
       option.

       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
       Wrapping lines with -V or -W will cause faulty highlighting of long
       single line comments and directives.  Using line-range might interfere
       with multi line syntax elements. Use with caution.

FILES
       The configuration files are stored in /usr/share/highlight/.  Language
       definitions, themes and plugins are located in subdirectories.

       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
       Single file conversion:

       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
       Andre Simon <as@andre-simon.de>

SEE ALSO
       README files and http://www.andre-simon.de/.

Andre Simon                       2023-05-11                      highlight(1)