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
overrides --syntax.
--syntax-supported
test if the given syntax can be loaded and print the result
(assumes -S or --syntax-by-name)
-v, --verbose
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)
--skip-leading-cols=<num>
output the first num columns of each line unhighlighted; the
columns are kept out of the parser, so quotes or comment
delimiters within them cannot alter the highlighting of the
remaining code (example: output of hg or svn annotate)
--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
-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-
injections)
-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>
--indent-guides
draw a guide in the leading whitespace of every indentation
level. Blank lines inside a block take the indentation of the
next line which contains code. The guides use the IndentGuide
theme element, or a dimmed default if the theme does not define
one (plain ansi output always uses the dimmed default); implies
-t 4 if no tab width was set
-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>
output all keywords in given case if language is not case
sensitive
--no-trailing-nl[=mode]
omit trailing newline. If mode is "empty-file", omit only for
empty input
--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)
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
also given there will be no style definitions.
Reformatting code (-F) will only work with C, C++, C# and Java input
files.
LSP features require absolute input paths and disable reformatting
(-F).
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 /opt/local/share/highlight/.
Language definitions, themes and plugins are located in subdirectories.
Documentation files are stored in /opt/local/share/doc/highlight/,
configuration files in /opt/local/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)
highlight 4.21 - Generated Thu Aug 27 16:38:54 CDT 2026