highlight(1) user documentation highlight(1)NAME
Highlight - a universal sourcecode to formatted text converter
SYNOPSIShighlight [OPTIONS]... [FILES]...
DESCRIPTION
Highlight converts sourcecode to HTML, XHTML, RTF, LaTeX, TeX, BBCode,
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 160 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
--add-config-dir=<path>
set path to an additional configuration 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
-p, --list-langs
list installed language definitions
-q, --quiet
supress progress info in batch mode
-w, --list-themes
list installed themes
--force
generate output if input syntax is unknown
--plug-in=<script>
execute Lua plug-in script; repeat option to apply multiple
plug-ins
--plug-in-read
set input file for a plug-in (e.g. '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
--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, ansi, xterm256, bbcode, svg]
-c, --style-outfile=<file>
name of style definition file or output to stdout, if "stdout"
is given as file argument
-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
-F, --reformat=<style>
reformat output in given style. <style>=[allman, banner, gnu,
java, kr, linux, stroustrup, whitesmith]
-I, --include-style
include style definition in output
-J, --line-length=<num>
line length before wrapping (see -W, -V)
-j, --line-number-length=<num>
line number length incl. left padding
-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)
-s, --style=<style name>
set highlighting style (see --list-themes)
-t --replace-tabs=<num>
replace tabs by num spaces
-u, --encoding=<enc>
set output encoding which matches input file encoding; omit
encoding information if enc is "NONE"
-V, --wrap-simple
wrap long lines without indenting function parameters and state‐
ments
-W, --wrap
wrap long lines (use with caution)
-z, --zeroes
fill leading space of line numbers with zeroes
--kw-case=<upper|lower|capitalize>
output all keywords in given case if language is not case sensi‐
tive
--delim-cr
set CR as end-of-line delimiter (MacOS 9)
--no-trailing-nl
omit trailing newline
(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
--inline-css
output CSS within each tag (verbose output)
--enclose-pre
enclose fragmented output with pre tag (assumes -f)
--ctags-file[=<file>]
read ctags file to include meta information as tooltips (default
value: tags)
LaTeX OPTIONS-b, --babel
disable Babel package shorthands
-r, --replace-quotes
replace double quotes by \dq
--pretty-symbols
improve appearance of brackets and other symbols
RTF OPTIONS-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)
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
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
The wrapping options might cause faulty highlighting of multi line com‐
ments.
FILES
The parsing information of the programming languages is stored in
/usr/share/highlight/langDefs/. You may enhance highlight's parsing
capabilities by adding more *.lang - files to this directory. You can
also define other directories with --data-dir. Documentation files are
stored in /usr/share/doc/highlight/ , configuration files in /etc/high‐
light/.
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.
AUTHORS
Andre Simon <as@andre-simon.de>
SEE ALSO
README file and highlight webpage at http://www.andre-simon.de/.
Andre Simon 2012-05-01 highlight(1)
