NAME
App::Greple::md - Greple module for Markdown syntax highlighting
SYNOPSIS
greple -Mmd file.md
greple -Mmd --mode=dark -- file.md
greple -Mmd --base-color=Crimson -- file.md
greple -Mmd --cm h1=RD -- file.md
greple -Mmd --no-table -- file.md
DESCRIPTION
App::Greple::md is a greple module for viewing Markdown files in the terminal with syntax highlighting.
It colorizes headings, bold, italic, strikethrough, inline code, fenced code blocks, HTML comments, blockquotes, horizontal rules, links, and images. Tables are formatted with aligned columns and optional Unicode box-drawing borders. Links become clickable via OSC 8 terminal hyperlinks in supported terminals.
Nested elements are handled with cumulative coloring: for example, a link inside a heading retains both its link color and the heading background color.
For a complete Markdown viewing experience with line folding, multi-column output, and themes, see App::mdee, which uses this module as its highlighting engine.
MODULE OPTIONS
Module options are specified before -- to separate them from
greple's own options:
greple -Mmd --mode=dark --cm h1=RD -- file.md
-m MODE, --mode=MODE
Set color mode. Available modes are light (default) and dark.
greple -Mmd -m dark -- file.md
-B COLOR, --base-color=COLOR
Override the base color used for headings, bold, links, and other
elements. Accepts a named color (e.g., Crimson, DarkCyan) or a
Term::ANSIColor::Concise color spec.
greple -Mmd -B Crimson -- file.md
--[no-]table
Enable or disable table formatting. When enabled (default), Markdown tables (3 or more consecutive pipe-delimited rows) are formatted with aligned columns using App::ansicolumn.
greple -Mmd --no-table -- file.md
--[no-]rule
Enable or disable Unicode box-drawing characters for table borders.
When enabled (default), ASCII pipe characters (|) are replaced
with vertical lines (│), and separator row dashes become
horizontal rules (─) with corner pieces (├,
┤, ┼).
greple -Mmd --no-rule -- file.md
--colormap LABEL=SPEC, --cm LABEL=SPEC
Override the color for a specific element. LABEL is one of
the color labels listed in "COLOR LABELS". SPEC follows
Term::ANSIColor::Concise format and supports sub{...}
function specs via Getopt::EX::Colormap.
greple -Mmd --cm h1=RD -- file.md
greple -Mmd --cm bold='${base}D' -- file.md
--heading-markup[=STEPS], --hm[=STEPS]
Control inline markup processing inside headings. By default, headings are rendered with uniform heading color without processing bold, italic, strikethrough, or inline code inside them. Links are always processed as OSC 8 hyperlinks regardless of this option.
Without an argument, all inline formatting becomes visible within headings using cumulative coloring. With an argument, only the specified steps are processed inside headings. Steps are separated by colons.
Available steps: inline_code, horizontal_rules, bold,
italic, strike.
greple -Mmd --hm -- file.md # all markup
greple -Mmd --hm=bold -- file.md # bold only
greple -Mmd --hm=bold:italic -- file.md # bold and italic
--hashed LEVEL=VALUE
Append closing hashes to headings. For example, ### Title
becomes ### Title ###. Set per heading level:
greple -Mmd --hashed h3=1 --hashed h4=1 -- file.md
--show LABEL[=VALUE]
Control which elements are highlighted. This is useful for focusing on specific elements or disabling unwanted highlighting.
greple -Mmd --show bold=0 -- file.md # disable bold
greple -Mmd --show all= --show h1 -- file.md # only h1
--show LABEL=0 or --show LABEL= disables the label.
--show LABEL or --show LABEL=1 enables it.
all is a special key that sets all labels at once.
CONFIGURATION
Module parameters can also be set using the config() function
in the -M declaration:
greple -Mmd::config(mode=dark,base_color=Crimson) file.md
Nested hash parameters use dot notation:
greple -Mmd::config(hashed.h3=1,hashed.h4=1) file.md
Available parameters:
mode light or dark (default: light)
base_color base color override
table table formatting (default: 1)
rule box-drawing characters (default: 1)
osc8 OSC 8 hyperlinks (default: 1)
heading_markup inline markup in headings (default: 0)
0=off, 1/all=all, or colon-separated steps
hashed.h1-h6 closing hashes per level (default: 0)
OSC 8 Hyperlinks
Links are converted to clickable OSC 8 terminal hyperlinks in supported terminals (iTerm2, Kitty, WezTerm, Ghostty, etc.). Disable with:
greple -Mmd::config(osc8=0) file.md
COLOR LABELS
The following labels identify colorizable elements. Use them
with --colormap (--cm) to customize colors or --show to control
visibility. Default values are shown as light / dark.
Colors follow Term::ANSIColor::Concise format.
Headings
LABEL LIGHT DARK
h1 L25D/${base};E L00D/${base};E
h2 L25D/${base}+y20;E L00D/${base}-y15;E
h3 L25DN/${base}+y30 L00DN/${base}-y25
h4 ${base}UD ${base}UD
h5 ${base}+y20;U ${base}-y20;U
h6 ${base}+y20 ${base}-y20
Inline Formatting
LABEL LIGHT / DARK
bold D
italic I
strike X
Code
LABEL LIGHT DARK
code_mark L20 L10
code_info ${base_name}=y70 ${base_name}=y20
code_block /L23;E /L05;E
code_inline L00/L23 L25/L05
Block Elements
LABEL LIGHT / DARK
blockquote ${base}D
horizontal_rule L15
comment ${base}+r60
Links
LABEL LIGHT / DARK
link I
image I
image_link I
SEE ALSO
-
Markdown viewer command with line folding, table formatting, multi-column layout, and themes. Uses this module for syntax highlighting.
-
General-purpose extensible grep tool that hosts this module.
-
Concise ANSI color specification format used for color labels.
-
ANSI-aware column formatting used for table alignment.
AUTHOR
Kazumasa Utashiro
LICENSE
Copyright 2025-2026 Kazumasa Utashiro.
This library is free software; you can redistribute it and/or modify it under the same terms as Perl itself.