Syntax: add cmd-help

[victor-gp]

As discussed in #2130.

I tried to add a syntax test but it's not highlighted because this is a syntax without auto-detection and the syntax tests scripts don't run bat --language=X.

[keith-hall]

I tried to add a syntax test but it's not highlighted because this is a syntax without auto-detection and the syntax tests scripts don't run bat --language=X.

Interesting that this hasn't come up as a problem before. It may be worth considering mapping to some unique filename/extension which won't clash with anything else.

[sharkdp]

Thank you for this contribution!

For the syntax tests, you should be able to use this: https://github.com/victor-gp/cmd-help-sublime-syntax/blob/2cf2ecc0e183dcc5989cd184ef9d9cbed3e4dfb5/syntaxes/cmd-help.sublime-syntax#L4-L5, right?

Otherwise, you can also place a bat_options file in the source folder (see e.g. the Plaintext syntax). This could probably just contain --language=cmd-help.

By the way, for usage with the -l/--language, it would be nice to have a short name for this syntax I suppose? Like help instead of cmd-help maybe? This would allow using this like

git --help | bat -lhelp

Or do you have other ideas how this would be used? With a shell function a la

bat_help() {
  cmd="$1"
  $cmd --help | bat --language=cmd-help
}

[victor-gp]

You are both right. I had overlooked that syntaxes are applied according to file extension, and cmd-help already supports that. 😅

I added a test based on bat -h, which hits most syntax elements. I also included help as a file extension related to the syntax, and bumped the submodule here.

As for usage, I suggest in the readme to use this, which covers most UX concerns (ask if you want me to elaborate). Surely it's not a very visible place, much less to the average bat user, so I'm open to suggestions with regards to this.

[sharkdp]

As for usage, I suggest in the readme to use this, which covers most UX concerns (ask if you want me to elaborate). Surely it's not a very visible place, much less to the average bat user, so I'm open to suggestions with regards to this.

I think we could add a new "Colorization of --help texts" subsection here: https://github.com/sharkdp/bat#integration-with-other-tools (or similar title). I would first mention how to do it without any shell function and alias, and add the two commands that you have in your README.

[victor-gp]

Done, see the latest commit. Open to edits :D

[keith-hall]

In other places in the readme, we put bat in backticks.

Suggested change

	You can use bat to colorize help text: `$ cp --help | bat -plhelp`
	You can use `bat` to colorize help text: `$ cp --help | bat -plhelp`

[victor-gp]

My bad! Fixed.

I also included a line to (try to) channel issues my way.

[victor-gp]

Hi! Can we move this forward? Is there anything I can do to help?

[Enselic]

I took a quick look and it looks OK to me too. Maybe we should be a bit more terse in the README, because I think our README currently is a bit too long, but we can do that later I think.

Since @sharkdp expressed support for this in the issue itself, I think we can merge this now.

[victor-gp]

Thank you! :)

I'm cool with the terseness. One way to go about it is making a separate section for "you can also use a wrapper around this..." in the syntax's readme. Then we can link that anchor here and narrow this to 2-3 lines (and no code block). Should I do that?

[Enselic]

If you have an idea for how to reduce the size of the readme AND make it easier to read as a whole, then: yes, I think you should do that :) Thanks in advance!