| git-grep(1) |
| =========== |
| |
| NAME |
| ---- |
| git-grep - Print lines matching a pattern |
| |
| |
| SYNOPSIS |
| -------- |
| [verse] |
| 'git grep' [-a | --text] [-I] [--textconv] [-i | --ignore-case] [-w | --word-regexp] |
| [-v | --invert-match] [-h|-H] [--full-name] |
| [-E | --extended-regexp] [-G | --basic-regexp] |
| [-P | --perl-regexp] |
| [-F | --fixed-strings] [-n | --line-number] [--column] |
| [-l | --files-with-matches] [-L | --files-without-match] |
| [(-O | --open-files-in-pager) [<pager>]] |
| [-z | --null] |
| [ -o | --only-matching ] [-c | --count] [--all-match] [-q | --quiet] |
| [--max-depth <depth>] [--[no-]recursive] |
| [--color[=<when>] | --no-color] |
| [--break] [--heading] [-p | --show-function] |
| [-A <post-context>] [-B <pre-context>] [-C <context>] |
| [-W | --function-context] |
| [--threads <num>] |
| [-f <file>] [-e] <pattern> |
| [--and|--or|--not|(|)|-e <pattern>...] |
| [--recurse-submodules] [--parent-basename <basename>] |
| [ [--[no-]exclude-standard] [--cached | --no-index | --untracked] | <tree>...] |
| [--] [<pathspec>...] |
| |
| DESCRIPTION |
| ----------- |
| Look for specified patterns in the tracked files in the work tree, blobs |
| registered in the index file, or blobs in given tree objects. Patterns |
| are lists of one or more search expressions separated by newline |
| characters. An empty string as search expression matches all lines. |
| |
| |
| CONFIGURATION |
| ------------- |
| |
| grep.lineNumber:: |
| If set to true, enable `-n` option by default. |
| |
| grep.column:: |
| If set to true, enable the `--column` option by default. |
| |
| grep.patternType:: |
| Set the default matching behavior. Using a value of 'basic', 'extended', |
| 'fixed', or 'perl' will enable the `--basic-regexp`, `--extended-regexp`, |
| `--fixed-strings`, or `--perl-regexp` option accordingly, while the |
| value 'default' will return to the default matching behavior. |
| |
| grep.extendedRegexp:: |
| If set to true, enable `--extended-regexp` option by default. This |
| option is ignored when the `grep.patternType` option is set to a value |
| other than 'default'. |
| |
| grep.threads:: |
| Number of grep worker threads to use. If unset (or set to 0), Git will |
| use as many threads as the number of logical cores available. |
| |
| grep.fullName:: |
| If set to true, enable `--full-name` option by default. |
| |
| grep.fallbackToNoIndex:: |
| If set to true, fall back to git grep --no-index if git grep |
| is executed outside of a git repository. Defaults to false. |
| |
| |
| OPTIONS |
| ------- |
| --cached:: |
| Instead of searching tracked files in the working tree, search |
| blobs registered in the index file. |
| |
| --no-index:: |
| Search files in the current directory that is not managed by Git. |
| |
| --untracked:: |
| In addition to searching in the tracked files in the working |
| tree, search also in untracked files. |
| |
| --no-exclude-standard:: |
| Also search in ignored files by not honoring the `.gitignore` |
| mechanism. Only useful with `--untracked`. |
| |
| --exclude-standard:: |
| Do not pay attention to ignored files specified via the `.gitignore` |
| mechanism. Only useful when searching files in the current directory |
| with `--no-index`. |
| |
| --recurse-submodules:: |
| Recursively search in each submodule that is active and |
| checked out in the repository. When used in combination with the |
| <tree> option the prefix of all submodule output will be the name of |
| the parent project's <tree> object. This option has no effect |
| if `--no-index` is given. |
| |
| -a:: |
| --text:: |
| Process binary files as if they were text. |
| |
| --textconv:: |
| Honor textconv filter settings. |
| |
| --no-textconv:: |
| Do not honor textconv filter settings. |
| This is the default. |
| |
| -i:: |
| --ignore-case:: |
| Ignore case differences between the patterns and the |
| files. |
| |
| -I:: |
| Don't match the pattern in binary files. |
| |
| --max-depth <depth>:: |
| For each <pathspec> given on command line, descend at most <depth> |
| levels of directories. A value of -1 means no limit. |
| This option is ignored if <pathspec> contains active wildcards. |
| In other words if "a*" matches a directory named "a*", |
| "*" is matched literally so --max-depth is still effective. |
| |
| -r:: |
| --recursive:: |
| Same as `--max-depth=-1`; this is the default. |
| |
| --no-recursive:: |
| Same as `--max-depth=0`. |
| |
| -w:: |
| --word-regexp:: |
| Match the pattern only at word boundary (either begin at the |
| beginning of a line, or preceded by a non-word character; end at |
| the end of a line or followed by a non-word character). |
| |
| -v:: |
| --invert-match:: |
| Select non-matching lines. |
| |
| -h:: |
| -H:: |
| By default, the command shows the filename for each |
| match. `-h` option is used to suppress this output. |
| `-H` is there for completeness and does not do anything |
| except it overrides `-h` given earlier on the command |
| line. |
| |
| --full-name:: |
| When run from a subdirectory, the command usually |
| outputs paths relative to the current directory. This |
| option forces paths to be output relative to the project |
| top directory. |
| |
| -E:: |
| --extended-regexp:: |
| -G:: |
| --basic-regexp:: |
| Use POSIX extended/basic regexp for patterns. Default |
| is to use basic regexp. |
| |
| -P:: |
| --perl-regexp:: |
| Use Perl-compatible regular expressions for patterns. |
| + |
| Support for these types of regular expressions is an optional |
| compile-time dependency. If Git wasn't compiled with support for them |
| providing this option will cause it to die. |
| |
| -F:: |
| --fixed-strings:: |
| Use fixed strings for patterns (don't interpret pattern |
| as a regex). |
| |
| -n:: |
| --line-number:: |
| Prefix the line number to matching lines. |
| |
| --column:: |
| Prefix the 1-indexed byte-offset of the first match from the start of the |
| matching line. |
| |
| -l:: |
| --files-with-matches:: |
| --name-only:: |
| -L:: |
| --files-without-match:: |
| Instead of showing every matched line, show only the |
| names of files that contain (or do not contain) matches. |
| For better compatibility with 'git diff', `--name-only` is a |
| synonym for `--files-with-matches`. |
| |
| -O[<pager>]:: |
| --open-files-in-pager[=<pager>]:: |
| Open the matching files in the pager (not the output of 'grep'). |
| If the pager happens to be "less" or "vi", and the user |
| specified only one pattern, the first file is positioned at |
| the first match automatically. The `pager` argument is |
| optional; if specified, it must be stuck to the option |
| without a space. If `pager` is unspecified, the default pager |
| will be used (see `core.pager` in linkgit:git-config[1]). |
| |
| -z:: |
| --null:: |
| Use \0 as the delimiter for pathnames in the output, and print |
| them verbatim. Without this option, pathnames with "unusual" |
| characters are quoted as explained for the configuration |
| variable core.quotePath (see linkgit:git-config[1]). |
| |
| -o:: |
| --only-matching:: |
| Print only the matched (non-empty) parts of a matching line, with each such |
| part on a separate output line. |
| |
| -c:: |
| --count:: |
| Instead of showing every matched line, show the number of |
| lines that match. |
| |
| --color[=<when>]:: |
| Show colored matches. |
| The value must be always (the default), never, or auto. |
| |
| --no-color:: |
| Turn off match highlighting, even when the configuration file |
| gives the default to color output. |
| Same as `--color=never`. |
| |
| --break:: |
| Print an empty line between matches from different files. |
| |
| --heading:: |
| Show the filename above the matches in that file instead of |
| at the start of each shown line. |
| |
| -p:: |
| --show-function:: |
| Show the preceding line that contains the function name of |
| the match, unless the matching line is a function name itself. |
| The name is determined in the same way as `git diff` works out |
| patch hunk headers (see 'Defining a custom hunk-header' in |
| linkgit:gitattributes[5]). |
| |
| -<num>:: |
| -C <num>:: |
| --context <num>:: |
| Show <num> leading and trailing lines, and place a line |
| containing `--` between contiguous groups of matches. |
| |
| -A <num>:: |
| --after-context <num>:: |
| Show <num> trailing lines, and place a line containing |
| `--` between contiguous groups of matches. |
| |
| -B <num>:: |
| --before-context <num>:: |
| Show <num> leading lines, and place a line containing |
| `--` between contiguous groups of matches. |
| |
| -W:: |
| --function-context:: |
| Show the surrounding text from the previous line containing a |
| function name up to the one before the next function name, |
| effectively showing the whole function in which the match was |
| found. The function names are determined in the same way as |
| `git diff` works out patch hunk headers (see 'Defining a |
| custom hunk-header' in linkgit:gitattributes[5]). |
| |
| --threads <num>:: |
| Number of grep worker threads to use. |
| See `grep.threads` in 'CONFIGURATION' for more information. |
| |
| -f <file>:: |
| Read patterns from <file>, one per line. |
| + |
| Passing the pattern via <file> allows for providing a search pattern |
| containing a \0. |
| + |
| Not all pattern types support patterns containing \0. Git will error |
| out if a given pattern type can't support such a pattern. The |
| `--perl-regexp` pattern type when compiled against the PCRE v2 backend |
| has the widest support for these types of patterns. |
| + |
| In versions of Git before 2.23.0 patterns containing \0 would be |
| silently considered fixed. This was never documented, there were also |
| odd and undocumented interactions between e.g. non-ASCII patterns |
| containing \0 and `--ignore-case`. |
| + |
| In future versions we may learn to support patterns containing \0 for |
| more search backends, until then we'll die when the pattern type in |
| question doesn't support them. |
| |
| -e:: |
| The next parameter is the pattern. This option has to be |
| used for patterns starting with `-` and should be used in |
| scripts passing user input to grep. Multiple patterns are |
| combined by 'or'. |
| |
| --and:: |
| --or:: |
| --not:: |
| ( ... ):: |
| Specify how multiple patterns are combined using Boolean |
| expressions. `--or` is the default operator. `--and` has |
| higher precedence than `--or`. `-e` has to be used for all |
| patterns. |
| |
| --all-match:: |
| When giving multiple pattern expressions combined with `--or`, |
| this flag is specified to limit the match to files that |
| have lines to match all of them. |
| |
| -q:: |
| --quiet:: |
| Do not output matched lines; instead, exit with status 0 when |
| there is a match and with non-zero status when there isn't. |
| |
| <tree>...:: |
| Instead of searching tracked files in the working tree, search |
| blobs in the given trees. |
| |
| \--:: |
| Signals the end of options; the rest of the parameters |
| are <pathspec> limiters. |
| |
| <pathspec>...:: |
| If given, limit the search to paths matching at least one pattern. |
| Both leading paths match and glob(7) patterns are supported. |
| + |
| For more details about the <pathspec> syntax, see the 'pathspec' entry |
| in linkgit:gitglossary[7]. |
| |
| EXAMPLES |
| -------- |
| |
| `git grep 'time_t' -- '*.[ch]'`:: |
| Looks for `time_t` in all tracked .c and .h files in the working |
| directory and its subdirectories. |
| |
| `git grep -e '#define' --and \( -e MAX_PATH -e PATH_MAX \)`:: |
| Looks for a line that has `#define` and either `MAX_PATH` or |
| `PATH_MAX`. |
| |
| `git grep --all-match -e NODE -e Unexpected`:: |
| Looks for a line that has `NODE` or `Unexpected` in |
| files that have lines that match both. |
| |
| `git grep solution -- :^Documentation`:: |
| Looks for `solution`, excluding files in `Documentation`. |
| |
| NOTES ON THREADS |
| ---------------- |
| |
| The `--threads` option (and the grep.threads configuration) will be ignored when |
| `--open-files-in-pager` is used, forcing a single-threaded execution. |
| |
| When grepping the object store (with `--cached` or giving tree objects), running |
| with multiple threads might perform slower than single threaded if `--textconv` |
| is given and there're too many text conversions. So if you experience low |
| performance in this case, it might be desirable to use `--threads=1`. |
| |
| GIT |
| --- |
| Part of the linkgit:git[1] suite |