Using batcat --pager "less -R" </path_to_file> doesen't convert ANSI characters in Kali

[bonesiX]

What steps will reproduce the bug?

I'm executing the command:

batcat --pager "less -R" </path_to_file>

The output looks like this:

I'm also tried to use "less -R" and the outputi is this:

How did you install bat?

sudo apt install bat

Operating system

Linux machine 6.6.15-amd64 #1 SMP PREEMPT_DYNAMIC Kali 6.6.15-2kali1 (2024-04-09) x86_64 GNU/Linux

batcat version

bat 0.24.0

Evironment variables

XDG_CURRENT_DESKTOP=GNOME
COLORTERM=truecolor
QT_IM_MODULE=ibus
QT_ACCESSIBILITY=1
SHELL=/usr/bin/zsh
XDG_SESSION_TYPE=x11
QT_QPA_PLATFORMTHEME=qt5ct
TERM=xterm-256color
PAGER=<not set>
LANG=en_CA.UTF-8
LC_ALL=en_CA.UTF-8
BAT_PAGER=<not set>
BAT_PAGING=<not set>
BAT_CACHE_PATH=<not set>
BAT_CONFIG_PATH=<not set>
BAT_OPTS=<not set>
BAT_STYLE=<not set>
BAT_TABS=<not set>
BAT_THEME=<not set>
XDG_CONFIG_HOME=<not set>
XDG_CACHE_HOME=<not set>
COLORTERM=<not set>
NO_COLOR=<not set>
MANPAGER=<not set>

Less version

less 643 (GNU regular expressions)

[keith-hall]

Just to check my understanding - when you run less -R path_to_file then it outputs colors?
That likely means that bat is given a file to syntax highlight which already contains ANSI escape codes. So naturally they get broken because bat is expecting plain text. Related: #2568 (comment)