bcat

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bcat http://github.com/rtomayko/bcat git clone git://github.com/rtomayko/bcat.git gem install bcat

NOTE: This repository is archived and no longer actively maintained by @rtomayko as of 2017-11-08.

bcat is a pipe to browser utility for use at the shell and within editors like Vim or Emacs. It reads from standard input, or one or more files, and streams output to a browser window:

$ echo "hi mom" |bcat
$ echo "hi mom" |bcat -T 'Important Message'
$ echo "hi mom" |bcat -b chrome

Plain text is converted to simple preformatted HTML with rudimentary support for ANSI/VT100 escape sequences (color, background, bold, underline, etc.)

You can also pipe HTML into bcat, in which case input is written through to the browser unmodified:

$ echo "<h1>hi mom</h1>" |bcat
$ echo "*hi mom*" |markdown |bcat

Output is displayed progressively as it's being read, making bcat especially useful with build tools or even commands like tail(1) that generate output over longer periods of time:

$ make all  |bcat
$ rake test |bcat
$ tail -f /var/log/syslog |bcat
$ (while printf .; do sleep 1; done) |bcat

See the bcat(1) EXAMPLES section for more on using bcat from the shell or within editors like Vim: http://rtomayko.github.com/bcat/bcat.1.html#EXAMPLES

bcat was inspired by TextMate's HTML output capabilities and a desire to have them at the shell and also within editors like Vim or Emacs. See: http://manual.macromates.com/en/commands#html_output http://blog.macromates.com/2005/html-output-for-commands/

Only a small portion of TextMate's HTML output features are currently supported, although more will be added in the future (like hyperlinking file:line references and injecting CSS/JavaScript).

See the INSTALLING, COPYING, and CONTRIBUTING files for more information on those things.

Copyright (c) 2010 by Ryan Tomayko http://tomayko.com/about