DragonFly On-Line Manual Pages
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, num-
bers, strings, comments, symbols and preprocessor directives. It sup-
ports 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
print this help
-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>
set type of source code, necessary if input file suffix is miss-
ing
-v, --verbose
print debug info to stderr
-q, --quiet
supress progress info in batch mode
--force
generate output if input syntax is unknown
--list-scripts=<type>
list installed scripts <type> = [langs, themes, plugins]
--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~')
--start-nested=<lang>
define nested language which starts input without opening delim-
iter
--stdout
output to stdout (batch mode, --print-style)
--validate-input
test if input is a valid text file
--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-injec-
tions)
-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, user]
The user style does not apply a predefined scheme. Use --refor-
mat-option to define reformatting behaviour.
--reformat-option=<opt>
apply an astyle cmd line option (assumes -F). Can be repeated to
override settings of the chosen indentation scheme.
-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>
set highlighting style (theme)
-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 func-
tion parameters and statements.
-W, --wrap
wrap lines after 80 (default) characters (use with caution).
-z, --zeroes
fill leading space of line numbers with zeroes
--delim-cr
set CR as end-of-line delimiter (MacOS 9)
--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 sensi-
tive
--no-trailing-nl
omit trailing newline
--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)
GNU SOURCE-HIGHLIGHT COMPATIBILITY OPTIONS
--doc create stand alone document
--no-doc
cancel the --doc option
--css=filename
the external style sheet filename
--src-lang=STRING
source language
-t, --tab=INT
specify tab length
-n, --line-number[=0]
number all output lines, optional padding
--line-number-ref[=p]
number all output lines and generate an anchor, made of the
specified prefix
p + the line number (default='line')
--output-dir=path
output directory
--failsafe
if no language definition is found for the input, it is simply
copied to the output
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. HTML will be generated unless an other output for-
mat is given. Style definitions are stored in highlight.css (HTML,
XHTML, SVG) or highlight.sty (LaTeX, TeX) if neither -c nor -I is
given. Reformatting code (-F) will only work with C, C++, C# and Java
input files.
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/ , configu-
ration 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 subdirecto-
ries 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 (recom-
mended 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 file and highlight webpage at http://www.andre-simon.de/.
Andre Simon 2018-04-30 highlight(1)
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, num-
bers, strings, comments, symbols and preprocessor directives. It sup-
ports 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
print this help
-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>
set type of source code, necessary if input file suffix is miss-
ing
-v, --verbose
print debug info to stderr
-q, --quiet
supress progress info in batch mode
--force
generate output if input syntax is unknown
--list-scripts=<type>
list installed scripts <type> = [langs, themes, plugins]
--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~')
--start-nested=<lang>
define nested language which starts input without opening delim-
iter
--stdout
output to stdout (batch mode, --print-style)
--validate-input
test if input is a valid text file
--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-injec-
tions)
-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, user]
The user style does not apply a predefined scheme. Use --refor-
mat-option to define reformatting behaviour.
--reformat-option=<opt>
apply an astyle cmd line option (assumes -F). Can be repeated to
override settings of the chosen indentation scheme.
-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>
set highlighting style (theme)
-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 func-
tion parameters and statements.
-W, --wrap
wrap lines after 80 (default) characters (use with caution).
-z, --zeroes
fill leading space of line numbers with zeroes
--delim-cr
set CR as end-of-line delimiter (MacOS 9)
--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 sensi-
tive
--no-trailing-nl
omit trailing newline
--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)
GNU SOURCE-HIGHLIGHT COMPATIBILITY OPTIONS
--doc create stand alone document
--no-doc
cancel the --doc option
--css=filename
the external style sheet filename
--src-lang=STRING
source language
-t, --tab=INT
specify tab length
-n, --line-number[=0]
number all output lines, optional padding
--line-number-ref[=p]
number all output lines and generate an anchor, made of the
specified prefix
p + the line number (default='line')
--output-dir=path
output directory
--failsafe
if no language definition is found for the input, it is simply
copied to the output
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. HTML will be generated unless an other output for-
mat is given. Style definitions are stored in highlight.css (HTML,
XHTML, SVG) or highlight.sty (LaTeX, TeX) if neither -c nor -I is
given. Reformatting code (-F) will only work with C, C++, C# and Java
input files.
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/ , configu-
ration 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 subdirecto-
ries 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 (recom-
mended 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 file and highlight webpage at http://www.andre-simon.de/.
Andre Simon 2018-04-30 highlight(1)