FreeBSD manual

download PDF document: highlight.1.pdf

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 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
-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> --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 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

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)