Bash syntax highlighting of subshells

Syntax highlighting of less, works just fine on most *nix systems.

apt install source-highlight
export LESSOPEN="| /usr/share/source-highlight/src-hilite-lesspipe.sh %s"
export LESS=' -R '

On Fedora/RedHat based distros use /usr/bin/src-hilite-lesspipe.sh instead.

Even on Cygwin you can do it with the minor adjustment of the shell script path and installing with apt-cyg instead of apt.

However, using this drastically slows down browsing of large files. I suggest to use alias in such a way to only implement the LESSOPEN export above when needed, like this:

alias lessh='LESSOPEN="| /usr/bin/src-hilite-lesspipe.sh %s" less -M '

where the -M flag is convenient to also show filename and line number.

Also remember to copy the script into your bin path:

cp /usr/share/source-highlight/src-hilite-lesspipe.sh /usr/bin/src-hilite-lesspipe.sh

UPDATE: 2019-07-24

Apparently, on more recent Cygwin installs, you have the following files in your path:

source-highlight.exe
source-highlight-esc.sh
source-highlight-settings.exe

So now you also need to execute the source-highlight-settings.exe that will add the configuration file:
$HOME/.source-highlight/source-highlight.conf.

The {} just groups commands together in the current shell, while () starts a new subshell. However, what you're doing is putting the grouped commands into the background, which is indeed a new process; if it was in the current process, it could not possibly be backgrounded. It's easier, IMHO, to see this kind of thing with strace:

sauer@humpy:~$ strace -f -etrace=process bash -c '{ sleep 10; echo "Sleeping process", $BASHPID, $BASH_SUBSHELL; }  & echo $BASHPID;' > /tmp/file
execve("/bin/bash", ["bash", "-c", "{ sleep 10; echo \"Sleeping proce"...], [/* 20 vars */]) = 0
arch_prctl(ARCH_SET_FS, 0x7f15a90da700) = 0
clone(Process 25347 attached
child_stack=0, flags=CLONE_CHILD_CLEARTID|CLONE_CHILD_SETTID|SIGCHLD, child_tidptr=0x7f15a90da9d0) = 25347
[pid 25346] exit_group(0)               = ?
clone(Process 25348 attached (waiting for parent)
Process 25348 resumed (parent 25347 ready)
child_stack=0, flags=CLONE_CHILD_CLEARTID|CLONE_CHILD_SETTID|SIGCHLD, child_tidptr=0x7f15a90da9d0) = 25348
[pid 25348] execve("/bin/sleep", ["sleep", "10"], [/* 20 vars */] <unfinished ...>
[pid 25347] wait4(-1, Process 25347 suspended
 <unfinished ...>
[pid 25348] <... execve resumed> )      = 0
[pid 25348] arch_prctl(ARCH_SET_FS, 0x7f922ad16700) = 0
[pid 25348] exit_group(0)               = ?
Process 25347 resumed
Process 25348 detached
<... wait4 resumed> [{WIFEXITED(s) && WEXITSTATUS(s) == 0}], 0, NULL) = 25348
--- SIGCHLD (Child exited) @ 0 (0) ---
wait4(-1, 0x7fffaa432ad8, WNOHANG, NULL) = -1 ECHILD (No child processes)
exit_group(0)                           = ?
Process 25347 detached

sauer@humpy:~$ cat /tmp/file
25346
Sleeping process, 25347, 1

Note that the bash command starts, then it creates a new child with clone(). Using the -f option to strace means it also follows child processes, showing yet another fork (well, "clone") when it runs sleep. If you leave the -f off, you see just the one clone call when it creates the backgrounded process:

sauer@humpy:~$ strace -etrace=clone bash -c '{ sleep 10; echo "Sleeping process", $BASHPID, $BASH_SUBSHELL; }  & echo $BASHPID;' > /tmp/file
clone(child_stack=0, flags=CLONE_CHILD_CLEARTID|CLONE_CHILD_SETTID|SIGCHLD, child_tidptr=0x7f2bdd5399d0) = 26394
sauer@humpy:~$ strace -etrace=process bash -c '{ sleep 10; echo "Sleeping process", $BASHPID, $BASH_SUBSHELL; }  & echo $BASHPID;' > /dev/null
execve("/bin/bash", ["bash", "-c", "{ sleep 10; echo \"Sleeping proce"...], [/* 20 vars */]) = 0
arch_prctl(ARCH_SET_FS, 0x7fd01ae86700) = 0
clone(child_stack=0, flags=CLONE_CHILD_CLEARTID|CLONE_CHILD_SETTID|SIGCHLD, child_tidptr=0x7fd01ae869d0) = 26706
exit_group(0)                           = ?

If you really just want to know how often you're creating new processes, you can simplify that even further by only watching for fork and clone calls:

sauer@humpy:~$ strace -etrace=fork,clone bash -c '{ sleep 10; echo "Sleeping process", $BASHPID, $BASH_SUBSHELL; }  & echo $BASHPID;' > /dev/null
clone(child_stack=0, flags=CLONE_CHILD_CLEARTID|CLONE_CHILD_SETTID|SIGCHLD, child_tidptr=0x7f467fa769d0) = 27025