Boost Your Terminal: Master the bat Command for Highlighting, Paging, and Git Integration

What is bat?

The bat command is an enhanced alternative to cat that provides syntax highlighting, automatic paging, Git diff integration, and the ability to reveal non‑printable characters, making it far more suitable for viewing source code and long text files.

Key Features

Syntax highlighting : Highlights keywords based on programming or markdown syntax, greatly improving readability.

Automatic paging : Sends output to less when the content exceeds one screen, enabling easy navigation.

Git integration : Shows file modifications side‑by‑side when viewing files from a Git repository.

Show non‑printable characters : With the -A or --show-all flag, invisible characters become visible.

Installation

Most modern Linux distributions include bat in their official repositories. On Ubuntu you can install it with: sudo apt-get install bat Because the name bat conflicts with an existing binary, the executable is called batcat. You can create a convenient alias:

alias "bat=batcat"

Basic Usage

Running bat works similarly to cat, but the output also includes line numbers, file names, and a table border. For long files you can limit the displayed range with --line-range.

Syntax Highlighting

bat

automatically highlights most programming and markup languages. To list all supported languages, use:

bat --list-languages

Git Integration

When viewing a file that is tracked by Git, bat shows the diff in a side pane, allowing you to see what has changed at a glance.

Displaying Non‑Printable Characters

Use the -A or --show-all option to reveal characters that cat would hide.

Automatic Paging

If the output exceeds one screen, bat pipes the result to less automatically. You can disable paging with --paging=never, though this is rarely needed.

Theme Customization

bat

ships with many color themes. List them with: bat --list-themes To apply a theme temporarily, use bat --theme=GitHub filename. For a permanent setting, add the environment variable to your shell startup script:

export BAT_THEME="GitHub"

Conclusion

With its syntax highlighting, paging, Git integration, and customizable themes, bat is a robust replacement for cat that greatly improves the experience of reading and inspecting text files in the terminal.