[Feature request] Output color codes to preview command when using --ansi

[mnalli]

Checklist

• I have read through the manual page (man fzf)
• I have searched through the existing issues
• For bug reports, I have checked if the bug is reproducible in the latest version of fzf

Output of fzf --version

0.67.0 (2ab923f)

OS

• Linux
• macOS
• Windows
• Etc.

Shell

• bash
• zsh
• fish

Problem / Steps to reproduce

I am working on an fzf-based shell snippet manager, now working on the batcat integration.

I was looking for a way to output color codes to the preview command when using --ansi flag.

# this command colors the filtering list, but not the output preview
bat --decorations=never --color=always ~/snippets.sh ~/paths.path | fzf --ansi --preview="echo {}"

# this command shows color codes in the filtering list, but shows the correctly colored preview output
bat --decorations=never --color=always ~/snippets.sh ~/paths.path | fzf --preview="echo {}"

Of course I could use another preview command, e.g. echo {} | bat -l bash, but this way I am forced to specify a language. The nice thing of using just a plain echo {} is that bat can just color its output based on file extension, e.g. .sh, .path.

Could we add a --ansi-preview option (or something like that) for this purpose?

[TheRealShek]

I’m interested in implementing this feature and will start working on it. Please let me know if that’s okay.

[mnalli]

I’m interested in implementing this feature and will start working on it. Please let me know if that’s okay.

Sure! I was going to look into it next week, maybe we could collaborate