bat
The bat tool is an alternative to a cat command that offers syntax coloring and Git integration. It provides automatic coloring for a large number of programming and formatting languages, showing file changes via the Git index. In long outputs, it can automatically pagination and redirects the output to a pager.
BA
bat
100sharkdp · Terminal & CLI
STARS61.0K
FORKS3.7K
COMMITS—
CONTRIBUTORS477
VERSIONv0.9.0
UPDATEDyesterday
RustCLICat Alt.Apache-2.0
What can it do?
- You can view single or multiple files in the terminal with syntax coloring.
- You can show and highlight non-printable characters in files in private.
- Using it with tools such as fzf or tail -f, you can preview search results or keep track of log files.
Heads up
- • High number of open issues (578)
Verified against README · Oct 26, 2026 · source