Kate

Software Introduction

Kate is a cross-platform text editor with numerous features. Kate also comes with various plugins, including an embedded terminal that allows you to launch console commands directly from Kate, a powerful search and replace plugin, and a preview plugin that can render MD, HTML, and even SVG files. It supports data recovery via swap files in case of system crashes, auto-completion with parameter hints, and also supports LSP (Language Server Protocol) for more powerful completion.

Download and Installation

You can open the Kate official website, then go to the Get It page. Afterwards, install it according to your operating system and preferred installation method.

Usage and Features

Swap Files to Prevent Data Loss

Similar to Vim, Kate writes unsaved changes to a swap file (typically the original filename prefixed with a dot and suffixed with .kate-swp). In case of unexpected events like power outages or program crashes, unsaved changes will not be lost upon the next startup.

Syntax Highlighting

Kate supports syntax highlighting for over three hundred languages. Generally, Kate can automatically select the corresponding language for syntax highlighting, but occasionally it may make mistakes. In such cases, you can click the button at the bottom right corner and select the correct language.

Writing Your Own Syntax Highlighting Files

Although Kate supports syntax highlighting for over three hundred languages, there might still be languages not covered. In such cases, you can write your own syntax highlighting files. Kate's built-in files are located at Syntax Highlighting Powered By KSyntaxHighlighting Framework. The syntax can be referenced from Working with Syntax Highlighting. Place the written files according to Syntax definition files. CoelacanthusHex/dotfiles@80a913c/pam_env.xml contains a configuration file written by the author for reference.

Switching Language

Click Settings in the top toolbar, then click Configure Language, and select the language. Note that you can choose alternative languages.

Encoding and Line Endings

Kate can automatically detect the encoding used by the current file. If the detection is incorrect, you can click the second-to-last button at the bottom right corner and select the correct encoding.

Simultaneously, Kate can also automatically detect the line endings used by the current file. If the detection is incorrect, you can click Tools→End of line to select the correct line ending.

Find and Replace

Click Edit→Find (shortcut Ctrl+F) to open the "Find" page. Click Edit→Replace (shortcut Ctrl+R) to open the "Find and Replace" page. Alternatively, clicking Search and Replace at the bottom left corner also opens the "Find and Replace" page.

The specific operations are not much different from other editors, but it supports some additional features, such as:

Case sensitivity
Support for regular expressions (including capture groups)
Ranging from the current file to multiple files to the current project
Selective replacement of search results

Language Server Protocol

Kate has supported LSP Client since version 19.12. Initially, it only supported C/C++, D, Fortran, Go, Latex/BibTeX, OCaml, Python, Rust. Currently, it supports the languages listed in the table below:

Language	LSP Server
Bash	bash-language-server
LaTeX	texlab
BibTeX	texlab
C	clangd
C++	clangd
D	serve-d
Fortran	fortls
Go	gopls
Haskell	haskell-language-server-wrapper
JavaScript	typescript-language-server
OCaml	ocamllsp
Perl	Perl-LanguageServer
Python	pyls
Rust	rls
TypeScript	typescript-language-server
R	RLanguageServer
zig	zls

To enable LSP-related features, go to the menu bar Settings→Configure Kate, then select LSP Client in Plugins to enable the features. When opening a file of the corresponding language, Kate will automatically launch the corresponding LSP Server.

Adding Configuration

Additionally, users can manually write configurations. The specific format is:

{
    "servers": {
        "bibtex": {
            "use": "latex",
            "highlightingModeRegex": "^BibTeX$"
        },
        "c": {
            "command": ["clangd", "-log=error", "--background-index"],
            "commandDebug": ["clangd", "-log=verbose", "--background-index"],
            "url": "https://clang.llvm.org/extra/clangd/",
            "highlightingModeRegex": "^(C|ANSI C89|Objective-C)$"
        },
        "cpp": {
            "use": "c",
            "highlightingModeRegex": "^(C\\+\\+|ISO C\\+\\+|Objective-C\\+\\+)$"
        },
        "haskell": {
            "command": ["haskell-language-server-wrapper", "--lsp"],
            "rootIndicationFileNames": ["*.cabal", "stack.yaml", "cabal.project", "package.yaml"],
            "url": "https://github.com/haskell/haskell-language-server",
            "highlightingModeRegex": "^Haskell$"
        },
        "latex": {
            "command": ["texlab"],
            "url": "https://texlab.netlify.com/",
            "highlightingModeRegex": "^LaTeX$"
        },
        "rust": {
            "command": ["rls"],
            "rootIndicationFileNames": ["Cargo.lock", "Cargo.toml"],
            "url": "https://github.com/rust-lang/rls",
            "highlightingModeRegex": "^Rust$"
        }
    }
}

Each item in servers represents a language. Within a language, command represents the command used to start the LSP Server. command is an array, which is the result of splitting the required command by spaces. url is the LSP's website. rootIndicationFileNames are files used to determine the project root directory. highlightingModeRegex matches the name of a syntax highlighting mode to determine which LSP to use. If a use item exists, it means using the configuration of the language corresponding to the use item.

This configuration item is located at Settings→Configure Kate→LSP Client→User Server Settings. The LSP Client section becomes visible only after enabling the LSP Client plugin in Plugins.

Built-in Terminal

Note

The built-in terminal depends on KDE's Konsole¹, and Konsole is a package exclusive to *nix systems. This means this feature is not available on Windows.

Press F4 to open or close the built-in terminal. You can also click the Terminal button at the bottom left corner to open it. The current directory of the built-in terminal automatically matches the current file and changes as you select different files. Otherwise, it is not much different from a general terminal.

External Tools

Click Tools→External Tools to execute.

Click Tools→External Tools→Configure to configure external tools.

Adding External Tools

Adding from Preset Configurations

After entering the configuration page, click Add→Add from Default Tools at the bottom left corner, then click the corresponding tool.

Adding by Writing Configuration Manually

After entering the configuration page, click Add→Add Tool at the bottom left corner, then fill in as prompted. You can refer to this document (English) to write your own external tool configuration. Note that you can click the following icon to view available variables.

Commonly Used External Tools

Compile and Execute a Single C++ File

On *nix systems, open any C++ source file, find Compile and Run cpp in the external tools, and click it.

For Windows Users

By default, because the executable file for this tool is sh, this tool is not available on Windows. However, users can modify this tool to make it usable on Windows systems.

To modify it, first ensure you have a usable C++ compiler in your system. Then add Compile and Run cpp from the default tools. Change the Executable from sh to powershell, and change the arguments to -ExecutionPolicy Bypass -Command "g++ %{Document:FilePath} -o %{Document:FileBaseName}.exe;./%{Document:FileBaseName}.exe" ²³.

Git Blame

Open any file, find git blame in the external tools, and click it. A window will open showing the result of git blame.

Formatting

The formatting feature requires the corresponding package or application to be available. For example, C/C++ formatting requires clang-format to be available. For other languages, users can check the default executable in the external tool configuration as a reference.

Open any source file, find Format with xxx in the external tools, and click it. Additionally, for C/C++ source files, clang-format can format selected text.

Git Blame

To enable this feature, go to the menu bar Settings→Configure Kate, then select Git Blame in Plugins.

After enabling this feature, Kate will display in a lighter font at the end of each line who last modified it in Git and when. Hovering the mouse over the text will show a tooltip with detailed commit information.

References and Footnotes

In the description of this package in Arch Linux, it optionally depends on konsole, described as open a terminal in Kate. ↩
If g++ is not in the PATH environment variable, change it to the absolute path of the compiler. ↩
Alternatively, if using Clang, change g++ to clang++. ↩

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Kate

Software Introduction

Download and Installation

Usage and Features

Swap Files to Prevent Data Loss

Syntax Highlighting

Writing Your Own Syntax Highlighting Files

Switching Language

Encoding and Line Endings

Find and Replace

Language Server Protocol

Adding Configuration

Built-in Terminal

External Tools

Adding External Tools

Adding from Preset Configurations

Adding by Writing Configuration Manually

Commonly Used External Tools

Compile and Execute a Single C++ File

Git Blame

Formatting

Git Blame

Related External Links

References and Footnotes