- 1. OVERVIEW
- 2. USAGE AND OPTIONS
- 3. CONFIGURATION
- 4. EMBEDDING HIGHLIGHT
- 5. BUILDING AND INSTALLING
- 6. DEVELOPER CONTACT
OSI Certified Open Source Software
Deutsche Anleitung: README_DE
Highlight converts sourcecode to HTML, XHTML, RTF, ODT, LaTeX, TeX, SVG, BBCode, Pango markup and terminal escape sequences with coloured syntax highlighting. Syntax definitions and colour themes are customizable.
Highlight was designed to offer a flexible but easy to use syntax highlighter for several output formats. No syntax or colouring information is hardcoded, instead all relevant data is stored in configuration scripts. These Lua scripts may be altered and enhanced with plug-ins.
-
highlighting of keywords, types, strings, numbers, escape sequences, comments, operators and preprocessor directives
-
coloured output in HTML, XHTML 1.1, RTF, TeX, LaTeX, SVG, BBCode, Pango Markup and terminal escape sequences
-
supports referenced stylesheet files for HTML, LaTeX, TeX or SVG output
-
configuration files are Lua scripts
-
supports plug-in scripts to tweak language definitions and themes
-
syntax elements are defined as regular expressions or plain string lists
-
customizable keyword groups
-
recognition of nested languages within a file
-
reformatting and indentation of C, C++, C# and Java source code
-
wrapping of long lines
-
configurable output of line numbers
Please see README_LANGLIST
for the current set of supported languages.
To get a list and associated file extensions you may also run:
highlight --list-scripts=langs
The following examples show how to produce a highlighted C++ file, using
main.cpp
as input file:
- Generate HTML
-
highlight -i main.cpp -o main.cpp.html highlight < main.cpp > main.cpp.html --syntax cpp highlight < source.tmp > main.cpp.html --syntax-by-name main.cpp
You will find the HTML file and
highlight.css
in the working directory. If you use IO redirection (2nd example), you must define the programming language with--syntax
or--syntax-by-name
. - Generate HTML with embedded CSS definitions and line numbers
-
highlight -i main.cpp -o main.cpp.html --include-style --line-numbers
- Generate HTML with inline CSS definitions
-
highlight -i main.cpp -o main.cpp.html --inline-css
- Generate LaTeX using “horstmann” source formatting style and “neon” colour theme
-
highlight -O latex -i main.cpp -o main.cpp.tex --reformat horstmann --style neon
The following output formats may be defined with
--out-format
:html
HTML5 (default)
xhtml
XHTML 1.1
tex
Plain TeX
latex
LaTeX
rtf
RTF
odt
OpenDocument Text (Flat XML)
svg
SVG
bbcode
BBCode
pango
Pango markup
ansi
Terminal 16 color escape codes
xterm256
Terminal 256 color escape codes
truecolor
Terminal 16m color escape codes
- Customize font settings
-
highlight --syntax ada --font-size 12 --font "'Courier New',monospace" highlight --syntax ada --out-format=latex --font-size tiny --font sffamily
- Define an output directory
-
highlight -d some/target/dir/ *.cpp *.h
See highlight --help
or man highlight
for more details.
The command line version of highlight offers the following options:
USAGE: highlight [OPTIONS]... [FILES]... General options: -B, --batch-recursive=<wc> convert all matching files, searches subdirs (Example: -B '*.cpp') -D, --data-dir=<directory> set path to data directory --config-file=<file> set path to a lang or theme file -d, --outdir=<directory> name of output directory -h, --help[=topic] print this help or a topic description <topic> = [syntax, theme, plugin, config, test] -i, --input=<file> name of single input file -o, --output=<file> name of single output file -P, --progress print progress bar in batch mode -q, --quiet suppress progress info in batch mode -S, --syntax=<type|path> specify type of source code or syntax file path --syntax-by-name=<name> specify type of source code by given name will not read a file of this name, useful for stdin -v, --verbose print debug info --force[=syntax] generate output if input syntax is unknown --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) --plug-in=<script> execute Lua plug-in script; repeat option to execute multiple plug-ins --plug-in-param=<value> set plug-in input parameter --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 --stdout output to stdout (batch mode, --print-style) --validate-input test if input is text, remove Unicode BOM --version print version and copyright information Output formatting options: -O, --out-format=<format> output file in given format <format>=[html, xhtml, latex, tex, odt, rtf, ansi, xterm256, truecolor, bbcode, pango, svg] -c, --style-outfile=<file> name of style file or print to stdout, if 'stdout' is given as file argument -e, --style-infile=<file> to be included in style-outfile (deprecated) use a plug-in file instead -f, --fragment omit document header and footer -F, --reformat=<style> reformats and indents output in given style <style> = [allman, gnu, google, horstmann, java, kr, linux, lisp, mozilla, otbs, pico, vtk, ratliff, stroustrup, webkit, whitesmith, user] The user style does not apply a predefined scheme. Use --reformat-option to define the reformatting. --reformat-option=<opt> apply an astyle cmd line option (assumes -F) -I, --include-style include style definition in output file -J, --line-length=<num> line length before wrapping (see -V, -W) -j, --line-number-length=<num> line number width incl. left padding (default: 5) --line-range=<start-end> output only lines from number <start> to <end> -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|path> set colour style (theme) or theme file path -t, --replace-tabs=<num> replace tabs by <num> spaces -T, --doc-title=<title> document title -u, --encoding=<enc> set output encoding which matches input file encoding; omit encoding info if set to NONE -V, --wrap-simple wrap lines after 80 (default) characters w/o indenting function parameters and statements -W, --wrap wrap lines after 80 (default) characters --wrap-no-numbers omit line numbers of wrapped lines (assumes -l) -z, --zeroes pad line numbers with 0's --base16[=theme] use a theme of the Base16 collection --delim-cr set CR as end-of-line delimiter (MacOS 9) --isolate output each syntax token separately (verbose output) --keep-injections output plug-in injections in spite of -f --kw-case=<case> change case of case insensitive keywords <case> = [upper, lower, capitalize] --no-trailing-nl[=mode] omit trailing newline. If mode is empty-file, omit only for empty input --no-version-info omit version info comment (X)HTML output options: -a, --anchors attach anchor to line numbers -y, --anchor-prefix=<str> set anchor name prefix -N, --anchor-filename use input file name as anchor prefix -C, --print-index print index with hyperlinks to output files -n, --ordered-list print lines as ordered list items --class-name=<name> 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 output 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 output options: --page-color include page color attributes -x, --page-size=<ps> set page size <ps> = [a3, a4, a5, b4, b5, b6, letter] --char-styles include character stylesheets SVG output options: --height set image height (units allowed) --width set image width (see --height) Terminal escape output options (xterm256 or truecolor): --canvas[=width] set background colour padding (default: 80) 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
The Graphical User Interface offers a subset of the CLI’s features. It includes
a dynamic preview of the output file’s apperarance. Please see screenshots and
screencasts on the project website.
Invoke highlight-gui with the --portable
option to let it save its settings
in the binary’s current directory (instead of using the registry).
If no input or output file name is defined by --input
and --output
options,
highlight will use stdin and stdout for file processing.
Since version 3.44, reading from stdin can also be triggered by the -
option.
If no input filename is defined by --input
or given at the prompt, highlight is
not able to determine the language type by means of the file extension (except
some scripting languages which are figured out by the shebang in the first input
line). In this case you have to pass highlight the language with --syntax
or
--syntax-by-name
(this usually should be the file suffix of the source file or
its name, respectively).
Example: If you want to convert a Python file, highlight needs to load the
py.lang
definition. The correct argument of --syntax
would be py
.
highlight test.py highlight < test.py --syntax py # --syntax option necessary cat test.py | highlight --syntax py
If there exist multiple suffixes (like C
, cc
, cpp
and h
for C++ files),
they are mapped to a language definition in $CONF_DIR/filetypes.conf
.
Highlight enters the batch processing mode if multiple input files are given
or if --batch-recursive
is set.
In batch mode, highlight will save the generated files using the original
filename, appending the extension of the chosen output type.
If files in the input directories happen to share the same name, the output
files will be prefixed with their source path name.
The --out-dir
option is recommended in batch mode. Use --quiet
to improve
performance (recommended for usage in shell scripts).
The HTML, TeX, LaTeX and SVG output formats allow to reference a stylesheet file which contains the formatting information.
In HTML and SVG output, this file contains CSS definitions and is saved as
highlight.css
. In LaTeX and TeX, it contains macro definitions, and is saved
as 'highlight.sty'.
Name and path of the stylesheet may be modified with --style-outfile
.
If the --outdir
option is given, all generated output, including stylesheets,
are stored in this directory.
Use --include-style
to embed the style information in the output documents
without referencing a stylesheet.
Referenced stylesheets have the advantage to share all formatting information in a single file, which affects all referencing documents.
With --style-infile
you define a file to be included in the final formatting
information of the document. This way you enhance or redefine the default
highlight style definitions without editing generated code.
Note: Using a plug-in script is the preferred way to enhance styling.
Since there are limited colours defined for ANSI terminal output, there exists
only one hard coded colour theme with --out-format=ansi
. You should therefore
use --out-format=xterm256
to enable output in 256 colours. The 256 colour mode
is supported by recent releases of xterm, rxvt and Putty (among others).
The latest terminal emulators also support 16m colors, this mode is enabled
with --out-format=truecolor
.
highlight --out-format=ansi <inputfile> | less -R highlight --out-format=xterm256 <inputfile> | less -R
The command line interface is extensively harmonised with source-highlight.
The following highlight options have the same meaning as in source-highlight:
--input
, --output
, --help
, --version
, --out-format
, --title
, --data-dir
,
--verbose
, --quiet
These options were added to enhance compatibility:
--css
, --doc
, --failsafe
, --line-number
, --line-number-ref
, --no-doc
, --tab
,
--output-dir
, --src-lang
These switches provide a common highlighter interface for scripts, plugins etc.
If highlight might process untrusted input, you can disable parsing of binary
files using --validate-input
. This flag causes highlight to match the input file
header with a list of magic numbers. If a binary file type is detected, highlight
quits with an error message. This switch also removes an UTF-8 BOM in the output.
If a file starts with an embedded code section which misses an appropriate opening
delimiter, the --start-nested
option will switch to the nested language mode.
This can be useful with LuaTeX files:
highlight luatex.tex --latex --start-nested=inc_luatex
inc_luatex
is a Lua language definition with TeX line comments.
The nested code section has to end with the ending delimiter defined in the host
language definition.
The option --config-file
helps to test new config files. The argument file must be
a lang or theme.
highlight --config-file xxx.lang --config-file yyy.theme -I
The command line version 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.
Since version 2.45, highlight supports special notations within comments to
test its syntax recognition.
See README_TESTCASES
for details.
Configuration files are Lua scripts. Please refer to https://www.lua.org/manual/5.1/manual.html for more details about the Lua syntax.
For more details about the Lua syntax, please refer to:
These constructs are sufficient to edit the scripts:
- Variable assignment
-
name = value
(variables have no type, only values have) - Strings
-
string1="string literal with escape: \n"
string2=[[raw string without escape sequence]]
If raw string content starts with
[
or ends with]
, pad the parenthesis with space to avoid a syntax error. Highlight will strip the string. - Comments
-
-- line comment
--[[ block comment ]]
- Arrays
-
array = { first=1, second="2", 3, { 4,5 } }
A language definition describes syntax elements of a programming language which
will be highlighted by different colours and font types.
Save the new file in langDefs/
, using the following name convention:
<usual extension of sourcecode files>.lang
Examples:
PHP |
→ |
Java |
→ |
If there exist multiple suffixes, list them in filetypes.conf
.
Keywords = { { Id, List|Regex, Group?, Priority?, Constraints? } } Id: Integer, keyword group id (can be reused for several groups). Default themes support 4 and base16 themes 6 groups. List: List, list of keywords Regex: String, regular expression Group: Integer, capturing group id of regular expression, defines part of regex which should be returned as keyword (optional; if not set, the match with the highest group number is returned (counts from left to right)) Priority: Integer, if not zero no more regexes will be evaluated if this regex matches Constraints: table consisting of: Line: Integer, limit match to line number, Filename: String, limit match to input file name Regular expressions are evaluated in the their order within Keywords. If a regex does not appear to match, there might be a conflicting expression listed before. Comments = { {Block, Nested?, Delimiter={Open, Close?} } Block: Boolean, true if comment is a block comment Nested: Boolean, true if block comments can be nested (optional) Delimiter: List, contains open delimiter regex (line comment) or open and close delimiter regexes (block comment) Strings = { Delimiter|DelimiterPairs={Open, Close, Raw?}, Escape?, Interpolation?, RawPrefix?, AssertEqualLength? } Delimiter: String, regular expression which describes string delimiters DelimiterPairs: List, includes open and close delimiter expressions if not equal, includes optional Raw flag as boolean which marks delimiter pair to contain a raw string Escape: String, regex of escape sequences (optional) Interpolation: String, regex of interpolation sequences (optional) RawPrefix: String, defines raw string indicator (optional) AssertEqualLength: Boolean, set true if delimiters must have the same length PreProcessor = { Prefix, Continuation? } Prefix: String, regular expression which describes open delimiter Continuation: String, contains line continuation character (optional). NestedSections = {Lang, Delimiter= {} } Lang: String, name of nested language Delimiter: List, contains open and close delimiters of the code section KeywordFormatHints={ { Id, Bold?, Italic?, Underline? } } Id: Integer, keyword group id whose attributes should be changed Bold: Boolean, font weight property Italic: Boolean, font style property Underline: Boolean, font decoration property These hints may have no effect if multiple syntax types are highlighted in batch mode without --include-style. Description: String, Defines syntax description Categories: Table, List of categories (config, source, script, etc) Digits: String, Regular expression which defines digits (optional) Identifiers: String, Regular expression which defines identifiers (optional) Operators: String, Regular expression which defines operators EnableIndentation: Boolean, set true if syntax may be reformatted and indented IgnoreCase: Boolean, set true if keyword case should be ignored EncodingHint: String, default input file encoding
The following variables are available within a language definition:
HL_LANG_DIR
|
path of language definition directory (use with Lua dofile function) |
Identifiers
|
Default regex for identifiers |
Digits
|
Default regex for numbers |
The following integer variables represent the internal highlighting states:
-
HL_STANDARD
-
HL_STRING
-
HL_NUMBER
-
HL_LINE_COMMENT
-
HL_BLOCK_COMMENT
-
HL_ESC_SEQ
-
HL_PREPROC
-
HL_PREPROC_STRING
-
HL_OPERATOR
-
HL_INTERPOLATION
-
HL_LINENUMBER
-
HL_KEYWORD
-
HL_STRING_END
-
HL_LINE_COMMENT_END
-
HL_BLOCK_COMMENT_END
-
HL_ESC_SEQ_END
-
HL_PREPROC_END
-
HL_OPERATOR_END
-
HL_INTERPOLATION_END
-
HL_KEYWORD_END
-
HL_EMBEDDED_CODE_BEGIN
-
HL_EMBEDDED_CODE_END
-
HL_IDENTIFIER_BEGIN
-
HL_IDENTIFIER_END
-
HL_UNKNOWN
-
HL_REJECT
This function is a hook which is called if an internal state changes (e.g. from
HL_STANDARD
to HL_KEYWORD
if a keyword is found). It can be used to alter
the new state or to manipulate syntax elements like keyword lists.
OnStateChange(oldState, newState, token, kwGroupID, lineno, column) Hook Event: Highlighting parser state change Parameters: oldState: old state newState: intended new state token: the current token which triggered the new state kwGroupID: if newState is HL_KEYWORD, the parameter contains the keyword group ID lineno: line number (since 3.50) column: line column (since 3.50) Returns: Correct state to continue OR HL_REJECT
Return HL_REJECT
if the recognized token and state should be discarded; the
first character of token will be outputted and highlighted as oldState
.
See README_PLUGINS
for more available functions.
Description="C and C++"
Categories = {"source"}
Keywords={
{ Id=1,
List={"goto", "break", "return", "continue", "asm", "case", "default",
-- [..]
}
},
-- [..]
}
Strings = {
Delimiter=[["|']],
RawPrefix="R",
}
Comments = {
{ Block=true,
Nested=false,
Delimiter = { [[\/\*]], [[\*\/]] } },
{ Block=false,
Delimiter = { [[//]] } }
}
IgnoreCase=false
PreProcessor = {
Prefix=[[#]],
Continuation="\\",
}
Operators=[[\(|\)|\[|\]|\{|\}|\,|\;|\.|\:|\&|\<|\>|\!|\=|\/|\*|\%|\+|\-|\~]]
EnableIndentation=true
-- resolve issue with C++14 number separator syntax
function OnStateChange(oldState, newState, token)
if token=="'" and oldState==HL_NUMBER and newState==HL_STRING then
return HL_NUMBER
end
return newState
end
Please see README_REGEX
for the supported regex constructs.
Colour themes contain the formatting information of the syntax elements which are described in language definitions.
The files have to be stored as .theme
in themes/
.
Apply a theme with the --style
option. Use --base16
to use one of the included
Base16 themes (located in themes/base16/
).
Attributes = {Colour, Bold?, Italic?, Underline? }
Colour |
String, defines colour in HTML hex notation ( |
Bold |
Boolean, true if font should be bold (optional) |
Italic |
Boolean, true if font should be italic (optional) |
Underline |
Boolean, true if font should be underlined (optional) |
Description: = String, Defines theme description Categories = Table, List of categories (dark, light, etc) Default = Attributes (Colour of unspecified text) Canvas = Attributes (Background colour ) Number = Attributes (Formatting of numbers) Escape = Attributes (Formatting of escape sequences) String = Attributes (Formatting of strings) Interpolation = Attributes (Formatting of interpolation sequences) PreProcessor = Attributes (Formatting of preprocessor directives) StringPreProc = Attributes (Formatting of strings within preprocessor directives) BlockComment = Attributes (Formatting of block comments) LineComment = Attributes (Formatting of line comments) LineNum = Attributes (Formatting of line numbers) Operator = Attributes (Formatting of operators) Keywords= { Attributes1, Attributes2, Attributes3, Attributes4, } AttributesN: Formatting of keyword group N. There should be at least four items to match the number of keyword groups defined in the language definitions
Description = "vim autumn"
Categories = {"light"}
Default = { Colour="#404040" }
Canvas = { Colour="#fff4e8" }
Number = { Colour="#00884c" }
Escape = { Colour="#8040f0" }
String = { Colour="#00884c" }
BlockComment = { Colour="#ff5050" }
StringPreProc = String
LineComment = BlockComment
Operator = { Colour="#513d2b" }
LineNum = { Colour="#555555" }
PreProcessor = { Colour="#660000" }
Interpolation = { Colour="#CA6DE1" }
Keywords = {
{ Colour="#80a030" },
{ Colour="#b06c58" },
{ Colour="#30a188" },
{ Colour="#990000" },
}
You may define custom keyword groups and corresponding highlighting styles. This is useful if you want to highlight functions of a third party library, macros, constants etc.
You define a new group in two steps:
-
Define a new group in your language definition or plug-in:
table.insert(Keywords, { {Id=5, List = {"ERROR", "DEBUG", "WARN"} } })
-
Add a corresponding highlighting style in your colour theme or plug-in:
if #Keywords==4 then table.insert(Keywords, {Colour= "#ff0000", Bold=true}) end
It is recommended to define keyword groups in user-defined plugin scripts to
avoid editing of original highlight files.
See the cpp_qt.lua
sample plug-in script and README_PLUGINS
for details.
The --plug-in
option reads the path of a Lua script which overrides or
enhances the settings of theme and language definition files. Plug-ins make
it possible to apply custom settings without the need to edit installed
configuration files.
You can apply multiple plugins by using the --plug-in
option more than once.
See README_PLUGINS
for a detailed description and examples of packaged plugins.
The script filetypes.conf
assigns file extensions and shebang descriptions to
language definitions.
A configuration is mandatory only if multiple file extensions are linked to
one syntax or if a extension is ambiguous. Otherwise the syntax definition whose
name corresponds to the input file extension will be applied.
Format:
FileMapping={ { Lang, Filenames|Extensions|Shebang }, } Lang: String, name of language definition Filenames: list of strings, contains filenames referring to "Lang" Extensions: list of strings, contains file extensions referring to "Lang" Shebang: String, Regular expression which matches the first line of the input file Behaviour upon ambiguous file extensions: - CLI: the first association listed here will be used - GUI: a syntax selection prompt will be shown
Edit the file gui_files/ext/fileopenfilter.conf
to add new syntax types to
the GUI’s file open filter.
Configuration scripts are searched in the following directories:
-
~/.highlight/
-
user defined directory set with
--data-dir
-
value of the environment variable
HIGHLIGHT_DATADIR
-
/usr/share/highlight/
-
/etc/highlight/
(default location offiletypes.conf
) -
current working directory (fallback)
These subdirectories are expected to contain the corresponding scripts:
-
langDefs:
*.lang
-
themes:
*.theme
-
plugins:
*.lua
A custom filetypes.conf
may be placed directly in ~/.highlight/
.
This search order enables you to enhance the installed scripts without the need
to copy preinstalled files somewhere else.
- Use
--print-config
to determine your settings -
highlight --print-config
See the extras/
subdirectory in the highlight package for some scripts in PHP,
Perl and Python which invoke highlight and retrieve its output as string.
These scripts may be used as reference to develop plug-ins for other apps.
PP macros file and tutorial are located in extras/pandoc/
.
See README.html
for usage instruction and example files as reference.
A SWIG interface file is located in extras/swig/
.
See README_SWIG
for installation instructions and the example scripts in Perl,
PHP and Python as programming reference.
A TCL extension is located in extras/tcl/
.
See README_TCL
for installation instructions.
See the extras/web_plugins/
subdirectory in the highlight package for
some plugins which integrate highlight in Wiki and Blogging software:
-
DokuWiki
-
MovableType
-
Wordpress
-
Serendipity
Other uses of highlight can be found on www.andre-simon.de This site shows several use cases of highlight in projects like Webgit, Evolution, Inkscape, Ranger and more.
The file INSTALL
describes the installation from source and includes links to
precompiled packages.
Highlight is known to compile with gcc and clang.
It depends on Boost headers and Lua 5.x/LuaJit developer packages.
The optional GUI depends on Qt5 developer packages.
Please see the makefile
for further options.
Andre Simon
Git project with repository, bug tracker: