Alternatives to bat
Like cat, but with syntax highlighting, line numbers, Git markers and a pager when the file is long. The listings below can replace it for an important use case. Each note says what changes if you switch.
The original
bat
Like cat, but with syntax highlighting, line numbers, Git markers and a pager when the file is long.
Replacements
Listings that take over the same core job as bat.
Glow
Reads Markdown files in a terminal with proper formatting, and finds them for you in the current directory or git repository.
Glow formats only Markdown files in the terminal, so it suits READMEs and notes but lacks bat's syntax highlighting for source code and Git margin markers.
ov
Read long command output with a configurable terminal pager.
ov is a configurable pager with search, column views and file-following modes, but it does not offer bat's syntax highlighting or Git integration.
Similar software
Related functionality, not a direct replacement.
ripgrep
Searches a whole directory tree for a pattern in a fraction of the time grep takes, and skips what gitignore says to skip.
fd
Finds files by name without the argument soup that find requires, and it is much faster.
eza
A replacement for ls with colours, icons, a tree view and Git status in the listing.
delta
A pager that makes git diffs readable: syntax highlighting, word-level changes, side-by-side view and line numbers.
vivid
Generate consistent file colors for command-line tools.
bat-extras
A set of Bash scripts that connect the bat file viewer with grep, man, diff and less.
