Add highlighting for manpages?

[LunarLambda]

I would like to use bat as my MANPAGER. I am not a fan of most(1), my current alternative is using nvim(1) with the :Man! command.

[sharkdp]

Thank you for the feedback! I thought a little bit about this and played around with nvims version, which is really cool! If you set

export MANPAGER="nvim -c 'set ft=man' -"

you don't need to call :Man! manually. If I understand this correctly, they basically have a specialized vim syntax (https://github.com/neovim/neovim/blob/master/runtime/syntax/man.vim) which highlights certain parts of mans output (e.g. section headings like PROLOG, SYNOPSIS, COPYRIGHT, …).

One thing which is really neat is that they highlight the SYNOPSIS part with C syntax if the man page comes from a corresponding section.

I'm not really sure if there is something that we could do even better than nvim, but that's definitely something we could look into. I think we might be able to write a specialized Sublime syntax to do the same. We would then simply need to set MANPAGER="bat -p -l man".

[LunarLambda]

I have MANPAGER set like that already (-c Man! works too on the version I have), which works okay but isn't ideal for me.

Thank you for considering it!

[sharkdp]

which works okay but isn't ideal for me.

What are changes or features you are looking for?

[LunarLambda]

I'm used to less controls, which nvim emulates somewhat when viewing manpages but not perfectly (mostly scrolling is missing), and it's visually a little distracting to me. I'd mostly like the highlighting as a reading aid.

Also would in general be nice to decouple this from nvim since not everyone uses it and I've increasingly been trying different editors recently.

There's also most as an alternative but only has special highlighting for manpages, and I already use bat for displaying / skimming through files.

[sharkdp]

I've been playing around with this for a little bit. Here is a rather hacky first version.

If somebody wants to try it (or even work on this):

Step 1

Save the following syntax as ~/.config/bat/syntaxes/Man.sublime-syntax.

%YAML 1.2
---
# http://www.sublimetext.com/docs/3/syntax.html
name: Man
file_extensions:
  - man
scope: source.man

variables:
  section_heading: '^\S.*$'

contexts:
  main:
    - match: ^
      push: first_line

  first_line:
    - match: '([A-Z0-9]+)(\()([^)]+)(\))'
      captures:
        1: meta.preprocessor
        2: keyword.operator
        3: string.quoted.other
        4: keyword.operator

    - match: '$'
      push: body

  body:
    - match: '^(SYNOPSIS|SYNTAX|SINTASSI|SKŁADNIA|СИНТАКСИС|書式)'
      push: Packages/C/C.sublime-syntax
      scope: markup.heading
      with_prototype:
        - match: '(?={{section_heading}})'
          pop: true

    - match: '^\S.*$'
      scope: markup.heading

    - match: '\b([a-z0-9_]+)(\()([^)]*)(\))'
      captures:
        1: entity.name.function
        2: keyword.operator
        3: constant.numeric
        4: keyword.operator

Step 2

Run

bat cache --build

Step 3

Set up the pager:

export MANPAGER="sh -c 'sed -e s/.\\\\x08//g | bat -l man -p'"

Step 4

Run man. For now, we do not make any decision based on the man section.

man 2 select
man  fopen
…

[LunarLambda]

Thanks, I will give it a run tomorrow. :)

…

On Fri, Mar 15, 2019, 00:10 David Peter ***@***.*** wrote: I've been playing around with this for a little bit. Here is a rather hacky first version. If somebody wants to try it (or even work on this): Step 1 Save the following syntax as ~/.config/bat/syntaxes/Man.sublime-syntax. %YAML 1.2 --- # http://www.sublimetext.com/docs/3/syntax.html name: Man file_extensions: - man scope: source.man variables: section_heading: '^\S.*$' contexts: main: - match: ^ push: first_line first_line: - match: '([A-Z0-9]+)(\()([^)]+)(\))' captures: 1: meta.preprocessor 2: keyword.operator 3: string.quoted.other 4: keyword.operator - match: '$' push: body body: - match: '^(SYNOPSIS|SYNTAX|SINTASSI|SKŁADNIA|СИНТАКСИС|書式)' push: Packages/C/C.sublime-syntax scope: markup.heading with_prototype: - match: '(?={{section_heading}})' pop: true - match: '^\S.*$' scope: markup.heading - match: '\b([a-z0-9_]+)(\()([^)]*)(\))' captures: 1: entity.name.function 2: keyword.operator 3: constant.numeric 4: keyword.operator Step 2 Run bat cache --build Step 3 Set up the pager: export MANPAGER="sh -c 'sed -e s/.\\\\x08//g | bat -l man -p'" Step 4 Run man. For now, we do not make any decision based on the man section. man select man fopen … — You are receiving this because you authored the thread. Reply to this email directly, view it on GitHub <#523 (comment)>, or mute the thread <https://github.com/notifications/unsubscribe-auth/AlHeorvamIPb0S8cic6bc6P98ii0Zguuks5vWtbSgaJpZM4bm5ak> .

[sharkdp]

Here is how it looks like (if everything goes well):

[LunarLambda]

Looks good, couple things I would consider: Name at the top (SELECT) is colored differently from select() further down select() (function call) shouldn't be highlighted OR be highlighted differently from page reference (select(3)) I guess that may be ambiguous though, if something of the form f(n) is used as an example... Also maybe give page references one uniform color rather than 3 individual ones (name, parens, section number)

…

On Fri, Mar 15, 2019, 00:13 David Peter ***@***.*** wrote: Here is how it looks like (if everything goes well): [image: image] <https://user-images.githubusercontent.com/4209276/54397543-22e67980-46b7-11e9-8e04-70db86ed51a6.png> — You are receiving this because you authored the thread. Reply to this email directly, view it on GitHub <#523 (comment)>, or mute the thread <https://github.com/notifications/unsubscribe-auth/AlHeovwpbplZycpRl6PUfo5TXxkJzTkpks5vWteggaJpZM4bm5ak> .

[YodaEmbedding]

Slightly missed opportunity for the title "bat man page highlights". :P

[sharkdp]

I have added my initial version from above to the repository so that everyone can contribute to the further development. See README for instructions.

[LunarLambda]

Thank you! 😊

…

On Sat, Aug 31, 2019, 14:34 David Peter ***@***.***> wrote: I have added my initial version from above to the repository so that everyone can contribute to the further development. See README for instructions. — You are receiving this because you authored the thread. Reply to this email directly, view it on GitHub <#523?email_source=notifications&email_token=AJI55IWYIVXOO5LQGFJTD2DQHJQMTA5CNFSM4G43S2SKYY3PNVWWK3TUL52HS4DFVREXG43VMVBW63LNMVXHJKTDN5WW2ZLOORPWSZGOD5TL4QQ#issuecomment-526827074>, or mute the thread <https://github.com/notifications/unsubscribe-auth/AJI55IRSTRDLD2X26LAKQ6LQHJQMTANCNFSM4G43S2SA> .

[sharkdp]

Released in bat v0.12.

[dufferzafar]

I tried using bat as my man pager, but it currently lacks the highlight of command line options..

[sharkdp]

it currently lacks the highlight of command line options..

this feature has not been released yet: #718. If you want to help with the next release, please see #845

[danisztls]

Another advantage to bat over neovim is that it is, anecdotally, faster to open.