include-ignore-files-in-ripgrep-search.md

Include Ignore Files In Ripgrep Search

By default, ripgrep (rg) will look for and respect ignore files like .gitignore. Any file and directory marked by those ignore files will no be included in an rg search.

This is usually what you want. Sometimes, however, it can be useful to get results from this ignored files as well.

In order to ignore your ignore files, pass the --no-ignore flag to rg:

$ rg --no-ignore ENV_VAR_KEY

Something to keep in mind is that rg also ignores hidden files and directories (those things that are prefixed with a ., such as .env or .config/). If some of your ignored files are also hidden files, then they still won't show up in search. You'll need the --hidden flag as well.

$ rg --no-ignore --hidden ENV_VAR_KEY

A shorthand equivalent for that is -uu:

$ rg -uu ENV_VAR_KEY

See man rg for more details.