How to grep output ?

[flohw]

Hi,

I have configured an alias alias cat ='bat --color always --style auto' (zsh) to have color syntax and line numbers enabled by default when I cat a file. I regularly use grep in combination cat myfile G pattern (alias -g G='|grep'). It usually works perfectly fine. But today I ran into an issue which I didn't find an answer nor found in the doc.
I am trying to filter a .gitmodules file : cat .gitmodules G submodule\ \"vim but the output is empty.
While \cat .gitmodules G submodule\ \"vim show me the right output.

The current workaround is to use grep submodule \"vim .gitmodules but I loose the coloration.

I think the problem comes from sequence (or command, I don't remember how they're called) character to add syntactic coloration. Is there a way to grep on colorized bat output ?

Thank you

[aashish254]

you are right that the color sequences are the cause. i reproduced this locally: with bat --color always, the output has escape codes inserted between every token, so grep never sees submodule "vim as one contiguous string. your pattern only fails because it spans the space between two differently colored tokens, which is why single-word patterns still worked fine for you.

the cleanest fix is to drop --color always from your alias and let bat decide, for example alias cat='bat --style auto'. bat's default color mode is auto, which keeps colors when it prints to your terminal but strips them when the output is piped, so your G alias keeps working and you still get colorized output when you just view a file. i tested bat --style auto .gitmodules | grep 'submodule "vim' and both submodule lines match, while bat --color always --style auto .gitmodules | grep ... matches nothing.

for a one-off without touching the alias, bat --color never file | grep pattern works too. you cannot really grep the colored stream and keep the colors at the same time, since the escape codes are exactly what breaks the match.

[flohw]

Indeed, it works perfectly like so. I don't remember why I added that option. Maybe due to different upgrades or some cross options (I had some hard time with man pager too 😅 )

Thank you for the quick answer !