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+---
+title: "Grep to Less that maintain colors"
+url: grep-to-less-maintain-colors.html
+date: 2023-05-29T21:27:07+02:00
+type: notes
+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](/notes/grep-less.png)