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 (deprecated)

--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 missing

-v, --verbose
    print debug info to stderr

-p, --list-langs
    list installed language definitions (deprecated)

-q, --quiet
    supress progress info in batch mode

-w, --list-themes
    list installed themes (deprecated)

--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-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 delimiter

--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, bbcode, pango, 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, google, pico, lisp, vtk]

-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 set to "NONE"

-V, --wrap-simple
    wrap long lines without indenting function parameters and statements

-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 sensitive

--delim-cr
    set CR as end-of-line delimiter (MacOS 9)

--no-trailing-nl
    omit trailing newline

--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

--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 format 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 long single line comments.

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/ , configuration 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 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.

AUTHORS
Andre Simon <as@andre-simon.de>

SEE ALSO
README file and highlight webpage at http://www.andre-simon.de/.