From 9776ebfa0fbb9bfb4acc0075def45edc31779f3e Mon Sep 17 00:00:00 2001
From: Jerry <48524572+JerryImMouse@users.noreply.github.com>
Date: Tue, 8 Jul 2025 23:42:22 +0500
Subject: [PATCH] Send errors to stderr (#3336)

* fix: send errors to stderr by default (#2561)

Closes #2561

* chore: add changelog entry

* chore: change PR id

* chore: add github username

* chore: cargo fmt...

* chore: move changelog line to bugfixes
---
 CHANGELOG.md               |  1 +
 src/error.rs               |  8 +++++++-
 tests/integration_tests.rs | 10 ++++++++++
 3 files changed, 18 insertions(+), 1 deletion(-)

diff --git a/CHANGELOG.md b/CHANGELOG.md
index be3b5d6c..c64258c8 100644
--- a/CHANGELOG.md
+++ b/CHANGELOG.md
@@ -14,6 +14,7 @@
 - Make highlight tests fail when new syntaxes don't have fixtures PR #3255 (@dan-hipschman)
 - Fix crash for multibyte characters in file path, see issue #3230 and PR #3245 (@HSM95)
 - Add missing mappings for various bash/zsh files, see PR #3262 (@AdamGaskins)
+- Send all bat errors to stderr by default, see #3336 (@JerryImMouse)
 
 ## Other
 
diff --git a/src/error.rs b/src/error.rs
index 007737b0..e5db81cc 100644
--- a/src/error.rs
+++ b/src/error.rs
@@ -67,7 +67,13 @@ pub fn default_error_handler(error: &Error, output: &mut dyn Write) {
             .ok();
         }
         _ => {
-            writeln!(output, "{}: {}", Red.paint("[bat error]"), error).ok();
+            writeln!(
+                &mut std::io::stderr().lock(),
+                "{}: {}",
+                Red.paint("[bat error]"),
+                error
+            )
+            .ok();
         }
     };
 }
diff --git a/tests/integration_tests.rs b/tests/integration_tests.rs
index 5a97c517..540f85e8 100644
--- a/tests/integration_tests.rs
+++ b/tests/integration_tests.rs
@@ -450,6 +450,16 @@ fn stdin_to_stdout_cycle() -> io::Result<()> {
     Ok(())
 }
 
+#[cfg(unix)]
+#[test]
+fn bat_error_to_stderr() {
+    bat()
+        .arg("/tmp")
+        .assert()
+        .failure()
+        .stderr(predicate::str::contains("[bat error]"));
+}
+
 #[cfg(unix)]
 #[test]
 fn no_args_doesnt_break() {