Provides a C API for bat syntax highlighter, enabling its use from various programming languages via FFI.
Download binaries from GitHub Releases.
From source code:
git clone https://github.com/kojix2/bat-c
cd bat-c
cargo build --release
# target/release/libbat_c.so (Linux), libbat_c.dylib (macOS), bat_c.dll (Windows)Note for macOS users:
The library is built with rpath = true, so the .dylib uses @rpath for loading. If you extract the release archive and use it directly from that directory, it should work without additional setup. If you install the library to a system directory (e.g., /usr/local/lib), ensure the directory is in your @rpath or set DYLD_LIBRARY_PATH accordingly.
See bat.h for detailed documentation including:
- Parameter requirements for each
BatInputType - Valid values for
wrapping_mode(0=NoWrapping, 1=Character) andpaging_mode(0=Never, 1=Always, 2=QuitIfOneScreen) - Memory safety requirements and proper usage of
bat_free_string - Error handling (functions return 0 on success, 1 on error; error details are printed to stderr)
/**
* BatInputType enum to specify the type of input
*/
typedef enum BatInputType {
BatBytes,
BatFile,
BatFiles,
} BatInputType;
/**
* Struct to hold print options
*/
typedef struct BatPrintOptions {
size_t tab_width;
bool colored_output;
bool true_color;
bool header;
bool line_numbers;
bool grid;
bool rule;
bool show_nonprintable;
bool snip;
size_t wrapping_mode;
bool use_italics;
size_t paging_mode;
size_t highlight_line;
} BatPrintOptions;
/**
* Print with specified options.
* Returns 0 on success, 1 on error.
*/
int32_t bat_pretty_print(const char *input,
size_t length,
int32_t input_type,
const char *language,
const char *theme,
struct BatPrintOptions options);
/**
* Pretty print output to a string.
* Returns 0 on success, 1 on error.
*/
int32_t bat_pretty_print_to_string(const char *input,
size_t length,
int32_t input_type,
const char *language,
const char *theme,
struct BatPrintOptions options,
const char **output,
size_t *output_length);
/**
* Free the string allocated by `bat_pretty_print_to_string`.
*/
void bat_free_string(const char *s);
/**
* Return the version of the library
*/
const char *bat_c_version(void);#include <stdio.h>
#include <string.h>
#include "../bat.h"
int main()
{
const char *text = "<span style=\"color: #ff00cc\">Hello world!</span>\n";
const char *language = "html";
const char *theme = "Nord";
BatPrintOptions options = {
.tab_width = 4,
.colored_output = 1,
.true_color = 1,
.header = 1,
.line_numbers = 1,
.grid = 1,
.rule = 1,
.show_nonprintable = 0,
.snip = 1,
.wrapping_mode = 1,
.use_italics = 1,
.paging_mode = 0,
.highlight_line = 0};
// Test with bytes input
bat_pretty_print(
text,
strlen(text),
BatBytes,
language,
theme,
options);
// Test with file input
const char *file_path = "test_input.html";
bat_pretty_print(
file_path,
0,
BatFile,
language,
theme,
options);
// Test with multiple files input
const char *file_paths[] = {"test_input1.html", "test_input2.html"};
bat_pretty_print(
(const char *)file_paths,
2,
BatFiles,
language,
theme,
options);
return 0;
}Examples demonstrating how to use bat-c from various programming languages via FFI:
- C - Direct usage with Makefile
- Python - Using ctypes
- Go - Using cgo with dynamic/static linking
- Ruby - Using ffi gem
- Julia - Using ccall
- D - Using extern(C) with dmd/ldc2
- Zig - Using @cImport with build.zig
- Nim - Using importc pragma
- V - Using V's C interop
- TypeScript/Node.js - Using Node-API (N-API)
Each example directory contains:
basic- Simple example highlighting HTML codeself_print- Example that syntax-highlights its own source fileREADME.md- Build and run instructions specific to that language
All examples require building the Rust library first:
cargo build --releaseTo run tests written in Rust:
cargo testTo run tests in C:
cd test && ./test.shcargo install --force cbindgen
cbindgen --config cbindgen.toml --crate bat-c --output bat.hMIT