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+---
+title: "Grep to Less that maintain colors"
+permalink: /grep-to-less-maintain-colors.html
+date: 2023-05-29T21:27:07+02:00
+layout: post
+type: note
+draft: false
+tags: [bash]
+---
+
+I often use `grep` to search for todo's in my code and other people's code and
+then pipe them in `less` and I missed having colors that grep outputs in `less`.
+
+- Grep's `--color=always` use markers to highlight the matching strings.
+- Less's `-R` option outputs "raw" control characters.
+
+You could use `alias grep='grep --color=always'` and `alias less='less -R'` or
+create todo function in your `.bashrc` that accepts first argument as search
+string.
+
+```sh
+# This is where the magic happens.
+grep --color=always -rni "TODO:" | less -R
+```
+
+![Less and grep](/assets/notes/grep-less.png)