ripgrep (rg)
------------
`ripgrep` is a command line search tool that combines the usability of The
Silver Searcher (an `ack` clone) with the raw speed of GNU grep. `ripgrep` has
first class support on Windows, Mac and Linux, with binary downloads available
for [every release](https://github.com/BurntSushi/ripgrep/releases).
[](https://travis-ci.org/BurntSushi/ripgrep)
[](https://ci.appveyor.com/project/BurntSushi/ripgrep)
[](https://crates.io/crates/ripgrep)
Dual-licensed under MIT or the [UNLICENSE](http://unlicense.org).
### Screenshot of search results
[](http://burntsushi.net/stuff/ripgrep1.png)
### Quick example comparing tools
This example searches the entire Linux kernel source tree (after running
`make defconfig && make -j8`) for `[A-Z]+_SUSPEND`, where all matches must be
words. Timings were collected on a system with an Intel i7-6900K 3.2 GHz.
Please remember that a single benchmark is never enough! See my
[blog post on `ripgrep`](http://blog.burntsushi.net/ripgrep/)
for a very detailed comparison with more benchmarks and analysis.
| ripgrep | `rg -n -w '[A-Z]+_SUSPEND'` | 450 | **0.245s** |
| [The Silver Searcher](https://github.com/ggreer/the_silver_searcher) | `ag -w '[A-Z]+_SUSPEND'` | 450 | 0.753s |
| [git grep](https://www.kernel.org/pub/software/scm/git/docs/git-grep.html) | `LC_ALL=C git grep -E -n -w '[A-Z]+_SUSPEND'` | 450 | 0.823s |
| [git grep](https://www.kernel.org/pub/software/scm/git/docs/git-grep.html) | `LC_ALL=en_US.UTF-8 git grep -E -n -w '[A-Z]+_SUSPEND'` | 450 | 2.880s |
| [sift](https://github.com/svent/sift) | `sift --git -n -w '[A-Z]+_SUSPEND'` | 450 | 3.656s |
| [The Platinum Searcher](https://github.com/monochromegane/the_platinum_searcher) | `pt -w -e '[A-Z]+_SUSPEND'` | 450 | 12.369s |
| [ack](http://beyondgrep.com/) | `ack -w '[A-Z]+_SUSPEND'` | 1878 | 16.952s |
(Yes, `ack` [has](https://github.com/petdance/ack2/issues/445) a
[bug](https://github.com/petdance/ack2/issues/14).)
### Why should I use `ripgrep`?
* It can replace both The Silver Searcher and GNU grep because it is faster
than both. (N.B. It is not, strictly speaking, a "drop-in" replacement for
both, but the feature sets are far more similar than different.)
* Like The Silver Searcher, `ripgrep` defaults to recursive directory search
and won't search files ignored by your `.gitignore` files. It also ignores
hidden and binary files by default. `ripgrep` also implements full support
for `.gitignore`, where as there are many bugs related to that functionality
in The Silver Searcher.
* `ripgrep` can search specific types of files. For example, `rg -tpy foo`
limits your search to Python files and `rg -Tjs foo` excludes Javascript
files from your search. `ripgrep` can be taught about new file types with
custom matching rules.
* `ripgrep` supports many features found in `grep`, such as showing the context
of search results, searching multiple patterns, highlighting matches with
color and full Unicode support. Unlike GNU grep, `ripgrep` stays fast while
supporting Unicode (which is always on).
In other words, use `ripgrep` if you like speed, sane defaults, fewer bugs and
Unicode.
### Is it really faster than everything else?
Yes. A large number of benchmarks with detailed analysis for each is
[available on my blog](http://blog.burntsushi.net/ripgrep/).
Summarizing, `ripgrep` is fast because:
* It is built on top of
[Rust's regex engine](https://github.com/rust-lang-nursery/regex).
Rust's regex engine uses finite automata, SIMD and aggressive literal
optimizations to make searching very fast.
* Rust's regex library maintains performance with full Unicode support by
building UTF-8 decoding directly into its deterministic finite automaton
engine.
* It supports searching with either memory maps or by searching incrementally
with an intermediate buffer. The former is better for single files and the
latter is better for large directories. `ripgrep` chooses the best searching
strategy for you automatically.
* Applies your ignore patterns in `.gitignore` files using a
[`RegexSet`](https://doc.rust-lang.org/regex/regex/struct.RegexSet.html).
That means a single file path can be matched against multiple glob patterns
simultaneously.
* Uses a Chase-Lev work-stealing queue for quickly distributing work to
multiple threads.
### Installation
The binary name for `ripgrep` is `rg`.
[Binaries for `ripgrep` are available for Windows, Mac and
Linux.](https://github.com/BurntSushi/ripgrep/releases) Linux binaries are
static executables. Windows binaries are available either as built with MinGW
(GNU) or with Microsoft Visual C++ (MSVC). When possible, prefer MSVC over GNU,
but you'll need to have the
[Microsoft Visual C++ Build
Tools](http://landinghub.visualstudio.com/visual-cpp-build-tools)
installed.
If you're a **Homebrew** user, then you can install it with a custom formula
(N.B. `ripgrep` isn't actually in Homebrew yet. This just installs the binary
directly):
```
$ brew install https://raw.githubusercontent.com/BurntSushi/ripgrep/master/pkg/brew/ripgrep.rb
```
If you're an **Archlinux** user, then you can install `ripgrep` from the
[`ripgrep` AUR package](https://aur.archlinux.org/packages/ripgrep/), e.g.,
```
$ yaourt -S ripgrep
```
If you're a **Rust programmer**, `ripgrep` can be installed with `cargo`:
```
$ cargo install ripgrep
```
`ripgrep` isn't currently in any other package repositories.
[I'd like to change that](https://github.com/BurntSushi/ripgrep/issues/10).
### Whirlwind tour
The command line usage of `ripgrep` doesn't differ much from other tools that
perform a similar function, so you probably already know how to use `ripgrep`.
The full details can be found in `rg --help`, but let's go on a whirlwind tour.
`ripgrep` detects when its printing to a terminal, and will automatically
colorize your output and show line numbers, just like The Silver Searcher.
Coloring works on Windows too! Colors can be controlled more granularly with
the `--color` flag.
One last thing before we get started: `ripgrep` assumes UTF-8 *everywhere*. It
can still search files that are invalid UTF-8 (like, say, latin-1), but it will
simply not work on UTF-16 encoded files or other more exotic encodings.
[Support for other encodings may
happen.](https://github.com/BurntSushi/ripgrep/issues/1)
To recursively search the current directory, while respecting all `.gitignore`
files, ignore hidden files and directories and skip binary files:
```
$ rg foobar
```
The above command also respects all `.rgignore` files, including in parent
directories. `.rgignore` files can be used when `.gitignore` files are
insufficient. In all cases, `.rgignore` patterns take precedence over
`.gitignore`.
To ignore all ignore files, use `-u`. To additionally search hidden files
and directories, use `-uu`. To additionally search binary files, use `-uuu`.
(In other words, "search everything, dammit!") In particular, `rg -uuu` is
equivalent to `grep -a -r`.
```
$ rg -uu foobar # equivalent to `grep -r`
$ rg -uuu foobar # equivalent to `grep -a -r`
```
(Tip: If your ignore files aren't being adhered to like you expect, run your
search with the `--debug` flag.)
Make the search case insensitive with `-i`, invert the search with `-v` or
show the 2 lines before and after every search result with `-C2`.
Force all matches to be surrounded by word boundaries with `-w`.
Search and replace (find first and last names and swap them):
```
$ rg '([A-Z][a-z]+)\s+([A-Z][a-z]+)' --replace '$2, $1'
```
Named groups are supported:
```
$ rg '(?P<first>[A-Z][a-z]+)\s+(?P<last>[A-Z][a-z]+)' --replace '$last, $first'
```
Up the ante with full Unicode support, by matching any uppercase Unicode letter
followed by any sequence of lowercase Unicode letters (good luck doing this
with other search tools!):
```
$ rg '(\p{Lu}\p{Ll}+)\s+(\p{Lu}\p{Ll}+)' --replace '$2, $1'
```
Search only files matching a particular glob:
```
$ rg foo -g 'README.*'
```
Or exclude files matching a particular glob:
```
$ rg foo -g '!*.min.js'
```
Search only HTML and CSS files:
```
$ rg -thtml -tcss foobar
```
Search everything except for Javascript files:
```
$ rg -Tjs foobar
```
To see a list of types supported, run `rg --type-list`. To add a new type, use
`--type-add`:
```
$ rg --type-add 'foo:*.foo,*.foobar'
```
The type `foo` will now match any file ending with the `.foo` or `.foobar`
extensions.
### Building
`ripgrep` is written in Rust, so you'll need to grab a
[Rust installation](https://www.rust-lang.org/) in order to compile it.
`ripgrep` compiles with Rust 1.9 (stable) or newer. Building is easy:
```
$ git clone git://github.com/BurntSushi/ripgrep
$ cd ripgrep
$ cargo build --release
$ ./target/release/rg --version
0.1.3
```
If you have a Rust nightly compiler, then you can enable optional SIMD
acceleration like so:
```
RUSTFLAGS="-C target-cpu=native" cargo build --release --features simd-accel
```
### Running tests
`ripgrep` is relatively well tested, including both unit tests and integration
tests. To run the full test suite, use:
```
$ cargo test
```
from the repository root.