In Linux and Unix-like systems, the 'cat' command is used to print and concatenate files. Using cat command, we can print the contents of a file to the standard output, concatenate several files into the target file, and append several files into the target file. Today, I stumbled upon a similar utility named "Bat". Bat is just a clone to the cat command, with some additional cool features such as syntax highlighting, git integration and automatic paging etc. In this guide, we will discuss what is Bat, how to install Bat in Linux, and how to use Bat command in Linux and Unix operating systems.
Table of Contents
What is Bat Command?
Bat is a command-line tool that displays the contents of a file in the terminal. It is a clone of the cat command, but it has some additional features, such as syntax highlighting and line numbering. The "wings" in the name refer to these additional features.
In simple terms, Bat is a more powerful and versatile version of the cat command. It is a great tool for programmers and other technical users who need to view and edit text files.
Bat is free and opensource program written in Rust programming language.
If you are looking for a powerful and versatile command-line tool for viewing and editing text files, then Bat is a great option. It is easy to use and has a lot of features that can make your life easier.
Bat Features
Here are some of the features of Bat:
- Syntax highlighting: Bat can automatically highlight the syntax of different programming languages, making it easier to read and understand code.
- Line numbering: Bat can number the lines of a file, which can be helpful for debugging and troubleshooting.
- Formatting options: Bat allows you to customize the formatting of the text output, such as the font, size, and color.
- Git integration: Bat can integrate with Git to show file modifications. This can be helpful for tracking changes to code.
- Automatic Paging: When you use bat to view a long file, it automatically divides the content into pages, allowing you to scroll through them easily. This is more convenient than having to scroll through everything all at once.
- Themes and Styles: You can customize the way bat displays files by choosing different color themes and styles. This lets you personalize your viewing experience according to your preferences.
- Binary File Handling: bat can also display binary files in a readable format, which can be useful for examining the content of binary files like images or compiled programs.
- Extension Detection: It can automatically detect the type of file you're viewing based on its extension and apply the appropriate syntax highlighting.
- Integration with Other Tools: bat can work alongside other tools and commands, making it a versatile choice for viewing file content while also taking advantage of other command-line utilities.
- Drop-in replacement for cat: Bat can be used as a drop-in replacement for the cat command. This means that you can use Bat to do everything that cat can do, plus more.
Install Bat on Linux
Bat is packaged for popular Linux operating systems.
Alpine Linux:
Bat is available in the official repositories of Alpine Linux. To install bat on Alpine Linux, run:
$ sudo apk add bat
Arch Linux:
Bat is available in the default repositories of Arch Linux. So, you can install it using pacman on any arch-based systems.
$ sudo pacman -S bat
Debian-based systems:
bat has been available for Ubuntu since version 20.04 ("Focal") and for Debian since August 2021 (Debian 11 - "Bullseye").
If you're using a recent Ubuntu or Debian version, you can easily install it with the following command:
$ sudo apt install bat
Please be aware that when you install bat this way, the executable might be named batcat instead of bat (due to a naming conflict with another package).
To avoid potential issues and maintain consistency across distributions, you can create a symlink or an alias:
Create a directory for local binaries (if it doesn't exist):
$ mkdir -p ~/.local/bin
Create a symlink or an alias to use bat instead of batcat:
For symlink:
$ ln -s /usr/bin/batcat ~/.local/bin/bat
For alias (add this line to your shell configuration file, like ~/.bashrc or ~/.zshrc):
alias bat='batcat'
If you want to install the latest .deb version on Debian, Ubuntu, Linux Mint, Pop_OS! systems, download the .deb file from the Releases page and install it as shown below.
$ wget https://github.com/sharkdp/bat/releases/download/v0.11.0/bat_0.11.0_amd64.deb
$ sudo apt install gdebi
$ sudo gdebi bat_0.11.0_amd64.deb
SUSE/openSUSE:
You can install bat with zypper like below:
$ sudo zypper install bat
Using Nix package manager:
In NixOS, you can install bat using nix package manager:
$ nix-env -i bat
Fedora:
Bat can be installed from the official Fedora Modular repository.
$ sudo dnf install bat
Gentoo:
emerge sys-apps/bat
Void Linux:
You can install bat via xbps-install:
$ sudo xbps-install -S bat
FreeBSD:
You can install a precompiled bat package with pkg:
# pkg install bat
Or build it from the FreeBSD ports:
# cd /usr/ports/textproc/bat # make install
Using Cargo package manager from source:
Make sure you have installed Rust 1.26 or higher.
- Install Rust Programming Language In Linux
Then, run the following command to install Bat:
$ cargo install bat
Using Linuxbrew:
Alternatively, you can install it using Linuxbrew package manager.
$ brew install bat
Bat Command Usage
The Bat command's usage is very similar to cat command.
To create a new file using bat, do:
$ bat > file.txt
To view the contents of a file using bat, run:
$ bat file.txt
You can also view multiple files at once:
$ bat file1.txt file2.txt
To append the contents of the multiple files in a single file:
$ bat file1.txt file2.txt file3.txt > document.txt
Like I already mentioned, apart from viewing and editing files, the Bat utility has some additional cool features though.
Syntax Highlighting
Bat supports syntax highlighting for large number of programming and markup languages. For instance, look at the following example.
I am going to display the contents of the reverse.py file using both cat and bat commands.
Did you notice the difference? The cat command shows the contents of the file in plain text format, whereas Bat shows output with syntax highlighting, order number in a neat tabular column format. Much better, isn't it?
Display Only Line Numbers
If you want to display only the line numbers (not the tabular column), use -n flag.
$ bat -n reverse.py
Sample output:
Automatic Paging
Another notable feature of Bat command is it supports automatic paging. That means if output of a file is too large for one screen, the bat command automatically pipes its own output to less command, so you can view the output page by page.
Let me show you an example.
When you view the contents of a file which spans multiple pages using cat command, the prompt quickly jumps to the last page of the file, and you do not see the content in the beginning or in the middle.
Have a look at the following output:
As you can see, the cat command displays last page of the file.
So, you may need to pipe the output of the cat command to less command to view it's contents page by page from the beginning.
$ cat reverse.py | less
Now, you can view output page by page by hitting the ENTER key. However, it is not necessary if you use bat command. The bat command will automatically pipe the output of a file which spans multiple pages.
$ bat reverse.py
Sample output:
Now hit the ENTER key to go to the next page.
Git Integration
The bat command also supports GIT integration, so you can view/edit the files in your Git repository without much hassle. It communicates with git to show modifications with respect to the index (see left side bar).
Bat also have the option to control the appearance of the output. To do so, use the --style option. To show only Git changes and line numbers but no grid and no file header, use --style=numbers,changes.
Display Non-printable Characters
To show non-printable characters in a file using the bat command, you can use the -A or --show-all option. Here's an example:
$ bat -A file.txt
Replace file.txt with the path to the file you want to view.
This command will display the content of the file along with non-printable characters highlighted. Non-printable characters might include things like tabs, line breaks, special control characters, and more.
Keep in mind that the appearance of non-printable characters might vary depending on your terminal and the color scheme you're using with bat.
How to Integrate Bat Command with Other Tools?
Here are step-by-step examples of how to integrate the bat command with various other tools:
Integration with fzf (Command-Line Fuzzy Finder):
fzf is a tool for searching and selecting items from a list interactively. You can use bat as a previewer for fzf to display file contents while navigating.
$ fzf --preview "bat --color=always --style=numbers --line-range=:500 {}"
In this example, fzf will show a preview of file contents using bat for any selected file.
Integration with find (Search Files) and xargs:
find is used to search for files in a directory hierarchy. You can use bat to preview search results.
$ find /path/to/search -name "*.txt" -exec bat {} +
This command will find all .txt files in the specified directory and its subdirectories, then use bat to preview their contents.
Integration with ripgrep (Recursive Text Search):
ripgrep is a fast recursive text search tool. You can use bat as the printer for ripgrep search results.
$ batgrep "search term" /path/to/search
This command will use ripgrep to search for the specified term in the given path and then print the search results using bat.
Integration with tail -f (Continuous Log Monitoring):
tail -f is used to monitor log files in real-time. You can use bat to continuously monitor log files with syntax highlighting.
$ tail -f /var/log/syslog | bat --paging=never -l log
This command will display the contents of the syslog file using bat, keeping the syntax highlighting intact while continuously monitoring updates.
Integration with git show (Viewing File from Git History):
git show displays information about a specific commit. You can use bat to view the contents of a file from a specific commit.
$ git show commit_hash:path/to/file | bat -l language
Replace commit_hash with the desired commit's hash and path/to/file with the file's path. language should be replaced with the appropriate language for syntax highlighting.
Integration with git diff (Viewing Git Changes):
You can use bat to view the changes made in a Git diff output.
$ git diff --color=always | bat --paging=never --diff
This command will display the colorized Git diff using bat, without paging, and indicating that it's a diff.
Integration with xclip (Copying to Clipboard):
You can use xclip to copy the output of bat to the clipboard.
$ bat file.txt | xclip -selection clipboard
This command will send the contents of file.txt through bat and then copy the result to the clipboard using xclip.
Remember to adjust file paths, options, and arguments based on your specific use case and preferences.
Customizing Bat Command Theme
If you don't like the default themes, you can change it too. Bat has option for that too.
To list the available themes, just run:
<strong>$ bat --list-themes</strong> 1337 DarkNeon Default GitHub Monokai Extended Monokai Extended Bright Monokai Extended Light Monokai Extended Origin TwoDark
To use a different theme, for example TwoDark, run:
$ bat --theme=TwoDark file.txt
If you want to make the theme permanent, use export BAT_THEME="TwoDark" in your shell's startup file.
You can read the comparison of similar tools from this table. Please note that comparison is made from Bat's perspective.
Frequently Asked Questions
Here's list most commonly asked questions (FAQ) about Bat command.
Q: What is the bat command?A: The bat command is a modern alternative to the traditional cat command used in Unix-like operating systems. It's designed to display the contents of files with syntax highlighting, line numbering, and additional features for an improved viewing experience.
Q: How do I install bat?A: You can install bat on various systems using package managers. For instance, on systems using apt (Debian/Ubuntu), you can run: sudo apt install bat
Q: What features does bat offer?A: bat offers syntax highlighting for various programming and markup languages, line numbering, Git integration, the ability to show non-printable characters, paging for long files, color customization, and more.
Q: How do I display the content of a single file using bat?A: To view the contents of a single file, use the bat command followed by the file's path. For example: bat README.md
Q: Can I display the contents of multiple files at once using bat?A: Yes, you can display the contents of multiple files by providing their paths as arguments. For instance: bat file1.txt file2.txt
Q: Is it possible to display all files in a directory using bat?A: Absolutely, you can use a wildcard * to display the contents of all files in a directory. For example: bat /path/to/directory/*
Q: How can I display files with a specific extension using bat?A: To display files with a certain extension, use a wildcard with the desired extension. For instance: bat *.log
Q: Can I display the contents of files in subdirectories with bat?A: Yes, you can use a double wildcard ** to display files in subdirectories. For example: bat /path/to/directory/**/*.txt
Q: How can I use bat to view specific lines of a file?A: You can specify a range of lines to view using the --line-range option. For example, to view lines 10 to 20 of a file: bat --line-range=10:20 file.txt
Q: How do I view a specific commit's file with bat?A: You can use git show to view a specific commit's file and then pipe it to bat for syntax highlighting:git show commit_hash:path/to/file | bat -l language
Q: How do I display non-printable characters using bat?A: Use the -A or --show-all option followed by the file path: bat -A file.txt
Q: Can bat be used with other tools?A: Yes, bat can be integrated with tools like fzf (fuzzy finder), find, ripgrep, git, and more. For example, to use bat with fzf: fzf --preview "bat --color=always --style=numbers --line-range=:500 {}"
Q: Can I customize the appearance of bat's output?A: Yes, you can customize the color themes and styles using the --theme and --style options.
For more details, refer the Bat command project GitHub page given below.
Resource:
- Bat GitHub Repository
以上是Linux蝙蝠命令 - 具有語法突出顯示和git集成的貓克隆的詳細內容。更多資訊請關注PHP中文網其他相關文章!

Linux系統管理員的主要任務包括系統監控與性能調優、用戶管理、軟件包管理、安全管理與備份、故障排查與解決、性能優化與最佳實踐。 1.使用top、htop等工具監控系統性能,並進行調優。 2.通過useradd等命令管理用戶賬戶和權限。 3.利用apt、yum管理軟件包,確保系統更新和安全。 4.配置防火牆、監控日誌、進行數據備份以確保系統安全。 5.通過日誌分析和工具使用進行故障排查和解決。 6.優化內核參數和應用配置,遵循最佳實踐提升系統性能和穩定性。

學習Linux並不難。 1.Linux是一個開源操作系統,基於Unix,廣泛應用於服務器、嵌入式系統和個人電腦。 2.理解文件系統和權限管理是關鍵,文件系統是層次化的,權限包括讀、寫和執行。 3.包管理系統如apt和dnf使得軟件管理方便。 4.進程管理通過ps和top命令實現。 5.從基本命令如mkdir、cd、touch和nano開始學習,再嘗試高級用法如shell腳本和文本處理。 6.常見錯誤如權限問題可以通過sudo和chmod解決。 7.性能優化建議包括使用htop監控資源、清理不必要文件和使用sy

Linux管理員的平均年薪在美國為75,000至95,000美元,歐洲為40,000至60,000歐元。提升薪資可以通過:1.持續學習新技術,如雲計算和容器技術;2.積累項目經驗並建立Portfolio;3.建立職業網絡,拓展人脈。

Linux的主要用途包括:1.服務器操作系統,2.嵌入式系統,3.桌面操作系統,4.開發和測試環境。 Linux在這些領域表現出色,提供了穩定性、安全性和高效的開發工具。

互聯網運行不依賴單一操作系統,但Linux在其中扮演重要角色。 Linux廣泛應用於服務器和網絡設備,因其穩定性、安全性和可擴展性受歡迎。

Linux操作系統的核心是其命令行界面,通過命令行可以執行各種操作。 1.文件和目錄操作使用ls、cd、mkdir、rm等命令管理文件和目錄。 2.用戶和權限管理通過useradd、passwd、chmod等命令確保系統安全和資源分配。 3.進程管理使用ps、kill等命令監控和控制系統進程。 4.網絡操作包括ping、ifconfig、ssh等命令配置和管理網絡連接。 5.系統監控和維護通過top、df、du等命令了解系統運行狀態和資源使用情況。

介紹 Linux是一個強大的操作系統,由於其靈活性和效率,開發人員,系統管理員和電源用戶都喜歡。但是,經常使用長而復雜的命令可能是乏味的

Linux適用於服務器、開發環境和嵌入式系統。 1.作為服務器操作系統,Linux穩定高效,常用於部署高並發應用。 2.作為開發環境,Linux提供高效的命令行工具和包管理系統,提升開發效率。 3.在嵌入式系統中,Linux輕量且可定制,適合資源有限的環境。


熱AI工具

Undresser.AI Undress
人工智慧驅動的應用程序,用於創建逼真的裸體照片

AI Clothes Remover
用於從照片中去除衣服的線上人工智慧工具。

Undress AI Tool
免費脫衣圖片

Clothoff.io
AI脫衣器

Video Face Swap
使用我們完全免費的人工智慧換臉工具,輕鬆在任何影片中換臉!

熱門文章

熱工具

MantisBT
Mantis是一個易於部署的基於Web的缺陷追蹤工具,用於幫助產品缺陷追蹤。它需要PHP、MySQL和一個Web伺服器。請查看我們的演示和託管服務。

mPDF
mPDF是一個PHP庫,可以從UTF-8編碼的HTML產生PDF檔案。原作者Ian Back編寫mPDF以從他的網站上「即時」輸出PDF文件,並處理不同的語言。與原始腳本如HTML2FPDF相比,它的速度較慢,並且在使用Unicode字體時產生的檔案較大,但支援CSS樣式等,並進行了大量增強。支援幾乎所有語言,包括RTL(阿拉伯語和希伯來語)和CJK(中日韓)。支援嵌套的區塊級元素(如P、DIV),

Dreamweaver CS6
視覺化網頁開發工具

DVWA
Damn Vulnerable Web App (DVWA) 是一個PHP/MySQL的Web應用程序,非常容易受到攻擊。它的主要目標是成為安全專業人員在合法環境中測試自己的技能和工具的輔助工具,幫助Web開發人員更好地理解保護網路應用程式的過程,並幫助教師/學生在課堂環境中教授/學習Web應用程式安全性。 DVWA的目標是透過簡單直接的介面練習一些最常見的Web漏洞,難度各不相同。請注意,該軟體中

ZendStudio 13.5.1 Mac
強大的PHP整合開發環境