The Silver Searcher. Like ack, but faster.
References
man ag
ag [options] pattern [path ...]Recursively search for PATTERN in PATH. Like grep or ack, but faster.
-a --all-types
Search all files. This doesn't include hidden files, and doesn't respect any ignore files.
--hidden
Search hidden files. This option obeys ignored files.
-t --all-text
Search all text files. This doesn't include hidden files.
-u --unrestricted
Search all files. This ignores .ignore, .gitignore, etc. It searches binary and hidden files as well.
-v --invert-match
Match every line not containing the specified pattern.
-A --after [LINES]
Print lines after match. If not provided, LINES defaults to 2.
-B --before [LINES]
Print lines before match. If not provided, LINES defaults to 2.
-C --context [LINES]
Print lines before and after matches. Default is 2.
-Q --literal
Do not parse PATTERN as a regular expression. Try to match it literally.
-s --case-sensitive
Match case-sensitively.
-S --smart-case
Match case-sensitively if there are any uppercase letters in PATTERN, case-insensitively otherwise. Enabled by default.
-c --count
Only print the number of matches in each file.
Note: This is the number of matches, not the number of matching lines.
Pipe output to wc -l if you want the number of matching lines.
--pager COMMAND
Use a pager such as less. Use --nopager to override. This option is also ignored if output is piped to another program.
--column
Print column numbers in results.
--ackmate
Output results in a format parseable by AckMate https://github.com/protocool/AckMate .
--[no]affinity
Set thread affinity (if platform supports it). Default is true.
--[no]break
Print a newline between matches in different files. Enabled by default.
--[no]color
Print color codes in results. Enabled by default.
--color-line-number
Color codes for line numbers. Default is 1;33.
--color-match
Color codes for result match numbers. Default is 30;43.
--color-path
Color codes for path names. Default is 1;32.
-D --debug
Output ridiculous amounts of debugging info. Not useful unless you're actually debugging.
--depth NUM
Search up to NUM directories deep, -1 for unlimited. Default is 25.
--[no]filename
Print file names. Enabled by default, except when searching a single file.
-f --[no]follow_
Follow symlinks. Default is false.
-F --fixed-strings
Alias for --literal for compatibility with grep.
--[no]group
The default, --group, lumps multiple matches in the same file together,
and presents them under a single occurrence of the filename.
--nogroup refrains from this, and instead places the filename at the start of each match line.
-g PATTERN
Print filenames matching PATTERN.
-G --file-search-regex PATTERN
Only search files whose names match PATTERN.
-H --[no]heading
Print filenames above matching contents.
--ignore PATTERN
Ignore files/directories whose names match this pattern. Literal file and directory names are also allowed.
--ignore-dir NAME
Alias for --ignore for compatibility with ack.
-i --ignore-case
Match case-insensitively.
-l --files-with-matches
Only print the names of files containing matches, not the matching lines. An empty query will print all files that would be searched.
-L --files-without-matches
Only print the names of files that don't contain matches.
--list-file-types
See FILE TYPES below.
-m --max-count NUM
Skip the rest of a file after NUM matches. Default is 0, which never skips.
--[no]mmap
Toggle use of memory-mapped I/O. Defaults to true on platforms where mmap() is faster than read(). (All but macOS.)
--[no]multiline
Match regexes across newlines. Enabled by default.
-n --norecurse
Don't recurse into directories.
--[no]numbers
Print line numbers. Default is to omit line numbers when searching streams.
-o --only-matching
Print only the matching part of the lines.
--one-device
When recursing directories, don't scan dirs that reside on other storage devices. This lets you avoid scanning slow network mounts. This feature is not supported on all platforms.
-p --path-to-ignore STRING
Provide a path to a specific .ignore file.
--parallel
Parse the input stream as a search term, not data to search.
This is meant to be used with tools such as GNU parallel.
For example: echo "foo\nbar\nbaz" | parallel "ag {} ." will run 3 instances of ag,
searching the current directory for "foo", "bar", and "baz".
--print-long-lines
Print matches on very long lines (> 2k characters by default).
--passthrough --passthru
When searching a stream, print all lines even if they don't match.
-r --recurse
Recurse into directories when searching. Default is true.
--search-binary
Search binary files for matches.
--silent
Suppress all log messages, including errors.
--stats
Print stats (files scanned, time taken, etc).
--stats-only
Print stats (files scanned, time taken, etc) and nothing else.
-U --skip-vcs-ignores
Ignore VCS ignore files (.gitignore, .hgignore), but still use .ignore.
-V --version
Print version info.
--vimgrep
Output results in the same form as Vim's :vimgrep /pattern/g
Here is a ~/.vimrc configuration example: set grepprg=ag\ --vimgrep\ $* set grepformat=%f:%l:%c:%m
Then use :grep to grep for something.
Then use :copen, :cn, :cp, etc. to navigate through the matches.
-w --word-regexp
Only match whole words.
--workers NUM
Use NUM worker threads. Default is the number of CPU cores, with a max of 8.
-z --search-zip
Search contents of compressed files. Currently, gz and xz are supported. This option requires that ag is built with lzma and zlib.
-0 --null --print0
Separate the filenames with \0, rather than \n: this allows xargs -0 <command> to correctly process filenames containing spaces or newlines.
It is possible to restrict the types of files searched.
For example, passing --html will search only files with the extensions htm, html, shtml or xhtml.
For a list of supported types, run ag --list-file-types.
$ ag --list-file-types
The following file types are supported:
--actionscript
.as .mxml
--ada
.ada .adb .ads
--asciidoc
.adoc .ad .asc .asciidoc
--apl
.apl
--asm
.asm .s
--batch
.bat .cmd
--bitbake
.bb .bbappend .bbclass .inc
--bro
.bro .bif
--cc
.c .h .xs
--cfmx
.cfc .cfm .cfml
--chpl
.chpl
--clojure
.clj .cljs .cljc .cljx
--coffee
.coffee .cjsx
--coq
.coq .g .v
--cpp
.cpp .cc .C .cxx .m .hpp .hh .h .H .hxx .tpp
--crystal
.cr .ecr
--csharp
.cs
--css
.css
--cython
.pyx .pxd .pxi
--delphi
.pas .int .dfm .nfm .dof .dpk .dpr .dproj .groupproj .bdsgroup .bdsproj
--dlang
.d .di
--dot
.dot .gv
--dts
.dts .dtsi
--ebuild
.ebuild .eclass
--elisp
.el
--elixir
.ex .eex .exs
--elm
.elm
--erlang
.erl .hrl
--factor
.factor
--fortran
.f .f77 .f90 .f95 .f03 .for .ftn .fpp
--fsharp
.fs .fsi .fsx
--gettext
.po .pot .mo
--glsl
.vert .tesc .tese .geom .frag .comp
--go
.go
--groovy
.groovy .gtmpl .gpp .grunit .gradle
--haml
.haml
--handlebars
.hbs
--haskell
.hs .hsig .lhs
--haxe
.hx
--hh
.h
--html
.htm .html .shtml .xhtml
--idris
.idr .ipkg .lidr
--ini
.ini
--ipython
.ipynb
--isabelle
.thy
--j
.ijs
--jade
.jade
--java
.java .properties
--jinja2
.j2
--js
.es6 .js .jsx .vue
--json
.json
--jsp
.jsp .jspx .jhtm .jhtml .jspf .tag .tagf
--julia
.jl
--kotlin
.kt
--less
.less
--liquid
.liquid
--lisp
.lisp .lsp
--log
.log
--lua
.lua
--m4
.m4
--make
.Makefiles .mk .mak
--mako
.mako
--markdown
.markdown .mdown .mdwn .mkdn .mkd .md
--mason
.mas .mhtml .mpl .mtxt
--matlab
.m
--mathematica
.m .wl
--md
.markdown .mdown .mdwn .mkdn .mkd .md
--mercury
.m .moo
--naccess
.asa .rsa
--nim
.nim
--nix
.nix
--objc
.m .h
--objcpp
.mm .h
--ocaml
.ml .mli .mll .mly
--octave
.m
--org
.org
--parrot
.pir .pasm .pmc .ops .pod .pg .tg
--pdb
.pdb
--perl
.pl .pm .pm6 .pod .t
--php
.php .phpt .php3 .php4 .php5 .phtml
--pike
.pike .pmod
--plist
.plist
--plone
.pt .cpt .metadata .cpy .py .xml .zcml
--proto
.proto
--pug
.pug
--puppet
.pp
--python
.py
--qml
.qml
--racket
.rkt .ss .scm
--rake
.Rakefile
--restructuredtext
.rst
--rs
.rs
--r
.r .R .Rmd .Rnw .Rtex .Rrst
--rdoc
.rdoc
--ruby
.rb .rhtml .rjs .rxml .erb .rake .spec
--rust
.rs
--salt
.sls
--sass
.sass .scss
--scala
.scala
--scheme
.scm .ss
--shell
.sh .bash .csh .tcsh .ksh .zsh .fish
--smalltalk
.st
--sml
.sml .fun .mlb .sig
--sql
.sql .ctl
--stata
.do .ado
--stylus
.styl
--swift
.swift
--tcl
.tcl .itcl .itk
--terraform
.tf .tfvars
--tex
.tex .cls .sty
--thrift
.thrift
--tla
.tla
--tt
.tt .tt2 .ttml
--toml
.toml
--ts
.ts .tsx
--twig
.twig
--vala
.vala .vapi
--vb
.bas .cls .frm .ctl .vb .resx
--velocity
.vm .vtl .vsl
--verilog
.v .vh .sv
--vhdl
.vhd .vhdl
--vim
.vim
--wix
.wxi .wxs
--wsdl
.wsdl
--wadl
.wadl
--xml
.xml .dtd .xsl .xslt .ent .tld .plist
--yaml
.yaml .yml
By default, ag will ignore files whose names match patterns in .gitignore, .hgignore, or .ignore.
These files can be anywhere in the directories being searched.
Binary files are ignored by default as well.
Finally, ag looks in $HOME/.agignore for ignore patterns.
If you want to ignore .gitignore and .hgignore, but still take .ignore into account, use -U.
Use the -t option to search all text files;
-a to search all files;
and -u to search all, including hidden files.
$ ag -a -Q '*.iml'
# output nothing
$ ag -u -Q '*.iml'
xyz-icehe-admin/.gitignore
7:*.iml
xyz-icehe-storage/.gitignore
7:*.iml
.gitignore
7:*.iml
$ ag -u *.iml
.idea/modules.xml
5: <module fileurl="file://$PROJECT_DIR$/xyz-icehe-admin.iml" filepath="$PROJECT_DIR$/xyz-icehe-admin.iml" />
ag printf: Find matches for "printf" in the current directory.
ag foo /bar/: Find matches for "foo" in path /bar/.
ag -- --foo: Find matches for "--foo" in the current directory.
( As with most UNIX command line utilities, "--" is used to signify that the remaining arguments should not be treated as options. )