batcat

Debian/Ubuntu name for the bat file viewer

TLDR

On Debian and Ubuntu the bat binary is installed as batcat. All options below are bat options.

Print a file with syntax highlighting and line numbers

$ batcat [path/to/file]

Concatenate multiple files (like cat)

$ batcat [file1] [file2]

Print without decorations (no line numbers, headers, or grid)

$ batcat --plain [path/to/file]

Show non-printable characters

$ batcat --show-all [path/to/file]

Highlight a specific line range

$ batcat --line-range [40:60] [path/to/file]

Force a language for highlighting

$ batcat --language [json] [path/to/file]

Make the bat alias permanent in your shell config

$ alias bat=batcat

batcat is the command name used by the bat binary on Debian and Ubuntu. The package ships the program as batcat because the name bat is already taken by the unrelated bacula-console-qt package. Functionally it is identical to bat: a cat clone with syntax highlighting, Git integration, automatic paging, and file headers.Many distributions other than Debian/Ubuntu install it as bat. To use the bat name on Debian-based systems, add `alias bat=batcat` to your shell configuration, or create a symlink such as `~/.local/bin/bat`.See bat for the full set of options and configuration. Common flags include -p/--plain, -A/--show-all, -n/--number, --language, --theme, --style, --paging, --line-range, and --diff.