NAME¶
ag - The Silver Searcher. Like ack, but faster.
SYNOPSIS¶
ag [
file-type] [
options] PATTERN [PATH]
DESCRIPTION¶
Recursively search for PATTERN in PATH. Like grep or ack, but faster.
OPTIONS¶
--ackmate:
Output results in a format parseable by AckMate
https://github.com/protocool/AckMate.
-a --all-types:
Search all files. This doesn´t include
hidden files, and also doesn´t respect any ignore files
-A --after [LINES]:
Print lines after match. Defaults to 2.
-B --before [LINES]:
Print lines before match. Defaults to 2.
--[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. Defaults to 1;33.
--color-match:
Color codes for result match numbers. Defaults
to 30;43.
--color-path:
Color codes for path names. Defaults to 1;32.
--column:
Print column numbers in results.
-C --context [LINES]:
Print lines before and after matches. Defaults
to 2.
-D --debug:
Output ridiculous amounts of debugging info.
Probably not useful.
--depth NUM:
Search up to NUM directories deep. Default is
25.
-f --follow:
Follow symlinks.
--[no]group
-g PATTERN:
Print filenames matching PATTERN.
-G,
--file-search-regex PATTERN:
Only search filenames matching PATTERN.
-H,
--[no]heading:
Print file names above matching contents.
--hidden:
Search hidden files. This option obeys ignore
files.
--ignore PATTERN:
Ignore files/directories matching 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 filenames containing matches, not
matching lines. An empty query will print all files that would be searched.
-L --files-without-matches:
Only print filenames 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 10,000.
--no-numbers:
Don´t show line numbers
-p --path-to-agignore STRING:
Provide a path to a specific .agignore file.
--pager COMMAND:
Use a pager such as less. Use
--nopager
to override. This option is also ignored if output is piped to another
program.
--print-long-lines:
Print matches on very long lines (> 2k
characters by default)
--passthrough:
When searching a stream, print all lines even
if they don´t match.
-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, or case insensitively otherwise. Enabled by
default.
--search-binary:
Search binary files for matches.
--silent:
Suppress all log messages, including errors.
--stats:
Print stats (files scanned, time taken, etc)
-t --all-text:
Search all text files. This doesn´t
include hidden files.
-u --unrestricted:
Search
all files. This ignores
.agignore, .gitignore, etc. It searches binary and hidden files as well.
-U --skip-vcs-ignores:
Ignore VCS ignore files (.gitignore, .hgignore,
svn:ignore), but still use .agignore.
-v --invert-match
--vimgrep:
Output results like vim's :vimgrep /pattern/g
would (it reports every match on the line).
Here's 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.
-z --search-zip:
Search contents of compressed files.
FILE TYPES¶
It is possible to restrict the types of files searched. For example, passing
--html as the
file-types parameter will search only files with
the extensions
htm,
html,
shtml or
xhtml. For a
list of supported
file-types run
ag --list-file-types.
IGNORING FILES¶
By default, ag will ignore files matched by patterns in .gitignore, .hgignore,
or .agignore. These files can be anywhere in the directories being searched.
Ag also ignores files matched by the svn:ignore property if
svn
--version is 1.6 or older. Finally, ag looks in $HOME/.agignore for ignore
patterns. Binary files are ignored by default as well.
If you want to ignore .gitignore, .hgignore, and svn:ignore but still take
.agignore 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.
EXAMPLES¶
ag printf: Find matches for "printf" in the current directory.
ag foo /bar/: Find matches for "foo" in path /bar/.
SEE ALSO¶
grep(1)