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1git-grep(1)
2===========
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3
4NAME
5----
5001422d 6git-grep - Print lines matching a pattern
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7
8
9SYNOPSIS
10--------
1c57119c 11[verse]
335ec3bf 12'git grep' [-a | --text] [-I] [--textconv] [-i | --ignore-case] [-w | --word-regexp]
17fd965d 13 [-v | --invert-match] [-h|-H] [--full-name]
cf0d720b 14 [-E | --extended-regexp] [-G | --basic-regexp]
63e7e9d8 15 [-P | --perl-regexp]
a449f27f 16 [-F | --fixed-strings] [-n | --line-number] [--column]
cf0d720b 17 [-l | --files-with-matches] [-L | --files-without-match]
0af88c15 18 [(-O | --open-files-in-pager) [<pager>]]
83caecca 19 [-z | --null]
9d8db06e 20 [ -o | --only-matching ] [-c | --count] [--all-match] [-q | --quiet]
0a09e5ed 21 [--max-depth <depth>] [--[no-]recursive]
73e9da01 22 [--color[=<when>] | --no-color]
a12c6b01 23 [--break] [--heading] [-p | --show-function]
1c57119c 24 [-A <post-context>] [-B <pre-context>] [-C <context>]
a12c6b01 25 [-W | --function-context]
89f09dd3 26 [--threads <num>]
cf0d720b 27 [-f <file>] [-e] <pattern>
ec2537be 28 [--and|--or|--not|(|)|-e <pattern>...]
74ed4371 29 [--recurse-submodules] [--parent-basename <basename>]
0460ed2c 30 [ [--[no-]exclude-standard] [--cached | --no-index | --untracked] | <tree>...]
3ac44408 31 [--] [<pathspec>...]
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32
33DESCRIPTION
34-----------
3ac44408 35Look for specified patterns in the tracked files in the work tree, blobs
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36registered in the index file, or blobs in given tree objects. Patterns
37are lists of one or more search expressions separated by newline
38characters. An empty string as search expression matches all lines.
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39
40
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41CONFIGURATION
42-------------
43
44grep.lineNumber::
23f8239b 45 If set to true, enable `-n` option by default.
b22520a3 46
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47grep.column::
48 If set to true, enable the `--column` option by default.
49
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50grep.patternType::
51 Set the default matching behavior. Using a value of 'basic', 'extended',
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52 'fixed', or 'perl' will enable the `--basic-regexp`, `--extended-regexp`,
53 `--fixed-strings`, or `--perl-regexp` option accordingly, while the
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54 value 'default' will return to the default matching behavior.
55
b22520a3 56grep.extendedRegexp::
bcf9626a 57 If set to true, enable `--extended-regexp` option by default. This
ae9f6311 58 option is ignored when the `grep.patternType` option is set to a value
84befcd0 59 other than 'default'.
b22520a3 60
89f09dd3 61grep.threads::
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62 Number of grep worker threads to use. If unset (or set to 0), Git will
63 use as many threads as the number of logical cores available.
89f09dd3 64
6453f7b3 65grep.fullName::
bcf9626a 66 If set to true, enable `--full-name` option by default.
6453f7b3 67
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68grep.fallbackToNoIndex::
69 If set to true, fall back to git grep --no-index if git grep
70 is executed outside of a git repository. Defaults to false.
71
b22520a3 72
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73OPTIONS
74-------
1c57119c 75--cached::
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76 Instead of searching tracked files in the working tree, search
77 blobs registered in the index file.
78
79--no-index::
2de9b711 80 Search files in the current directory that is not managed by Git.
1c57119c 81
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82--untracked::
83 In addition to searching in the tracked files in the working
84 tree, search also in untracked files.
85
86--no-exclude-standard::
87 Also search in ignored files by not honoring the `.gitignore`
88 mechanism. Only useful with `--untracked`.
89
90--exclude-standard::
8d75a1d1 91 Do not pay attention to ignored files specified via the `.gitignore`
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92 mechanism. Only useful when searching files in the current directory
93 with `--no-index`.
1c57119c 94
0281e487 95--recurse-submodules::
acbfae32 96 Recursively search in each submodule that is active and
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97 checked out in the repository. When used in combination with the
98 <tree> option the prefix of all submodule output will be the name of
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99 the parent project's <tree> object. This option has no effect
100 if `--no-index` is given.
74ed4371 101
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102-a::
103--text::
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104 Process binary files as if they were text.
105
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106--textconv::
107 Honor textconv filter settings.
108
109--no-textconv::
110 Do not honor textconv filter settings.
111 This is the default.
112
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113-i::
114--ignore-case::
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115 Ignore case differences between the patterns and the
116 files.
117
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118-I::
119 Don't match the pattern in binary files.
120
a91f453f 121--max-depth <depth>::
3ac44408 122 For each <pathspec> given on command line, descend at most <depth>
0a09e5ed 123 levels of directories. A value of -1 means no limit.
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124 This option is ignored if <pathspec> contains active wildcards.
125 In other words if "a*" matches a directory named "a*",
126 "*" is matched literally so --max-depth is still effective.
a91f453f 127
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128-r::
129--recursive::
130 Same as `--max-depth=-1`; this is the default.
131
132--no-recursive::
133 Same as `--max-depth=0`.
134
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135-w::
136--word-regexp::
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137 Match the pattern only at word boundary (either begin at the
138 beginning of a line, or preceded by a non-word character; end at
139 the end of a line or followed by a non-word character).
140
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141-v::
142--invert-match::
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143 Select non-matching lines.
144
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145-h::
146-H::
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147 By default, the command shows the filename for each
148 match. `-h` option is used to suppress this output.
149 `-H` is there for completeness and does not do anything
150 except it overrides `-h` given earlier on the command
151 line.
152
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153--full-name::
154 When run from a subdirectory, the command usually
155 outputs paths relative to the current directory. This
156 option forces paths to be output relative to the project
157 top directory.
158
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159-E::
160--extended-regexp::
161-G::
162--basic-regexp::
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163 Use POSIX extended/basic regexp for patterns. Default
164 is to use basic regexp.
5b2bcc7b 165
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166-P::
167--perl-regexp::
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168 Use Perl-compatible regular expressions for patterns.
169+
170Support for these types of regular expressions is an optional
171compile-time dependency. If Git wasn't compiled with support for them
172providing this option will cause it to die.
63e7e9d8 173
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174-F::
175--fixed-strings::
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176 Use fixed strings for patterns (don't interpret pattern
177 as a regex).
178
1c57119c 179-n::
7d6cb10b 180--line-number::
1c57119c 181 Prefix the line number to matching lines.
2aba319a 182
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183--column::
184 Prefix the 1-indexed byte-offset of the first match from the start of the
185 matching line.
186
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187-l::
188--files-with-matches::
189--name-only::
190-L::
191--files-without-match::
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192 Instead of showing every matched line, show only the
193 names of files that contain (or do not contain) matches.
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194 For better compatibility with 'git diff', `--name-only` is a
195 synonym for `--files-with-matches`.
2aba319a 196
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197-O[<pager>]::
198--open-files-in-pager[=<pager>]::
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199 Open the matching files in the pager (not the output of 'grep').
200 If the pager happens to be "less" or "vi", and the user
201 specified only one pattern, the first file is positioned at
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202 the first match automatically. The `pager` argument is
203 optional; if specified, it must be stuck to the option
204 without a space. If `pager` is unspecified, the default pager
205 will be used (see `core.pager` in linkgit:git-config[1]).
678e484b 206
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207-z::
208--null::
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209 Use \0 as the delimiter for pathnames in the output, and print
210 them verbatim. Without this option, pathnames with "unusual"
211 characters are quoted as explained for the configuration
212 variable core.quotePath (see git-config(1)).
83caecca 213
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214-o::
215--only-matching::
216 Print only the matched (non-empty) parts of a matching line, with each such
217 part on a separate output line.
218
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219-c::
220--count::
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221 Instead of showing every matched line, show the number of
222 lines that match.
223
73e9da01 224--color[=<when>]::
7e8f59d5 225 Show colored matches.
73e9da01 226 The value must be always (the default), never, or auto.
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227
228--no-color::
229 Turn off match highlighting, even when the configuration file
230 gives the default to color output.
73e9da01 231 Same as `--color=never`.
7e8f59d5 232
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233--break::
234 Print an empty line between matches from different files.
235
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236--heading::
237 Show the filename above the matches in that file instead of
238 at the start of each shown line.
239
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240-p::
241--show-function::
242 Show the preceding line that contains the function name of
243 the match, unless the matching line is a function name itself.
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244 The name is determined in the same way as 'git diff' works out
245 patch hunk headers (see 'Defining a custom hunk-header' in
246 linkgit:gitattributes[5]).
2944e4e6 247
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248-<num>::
249-C <num>::
250--context <num>::
251 Show <num> leading and trailing lines, and place a line
252 containing `--` between contiguous groups of matches.
253
254-A <num>::
255--after-context <num>::
256 Show <num> trailing lines, and place a line containing
257 `--` between contiguous groups of matches.
258
259-B <num>::
260--before-context <num>::
261 Show <num> leading lines, and place a line containing
262 `--` between contiguous groups of matches.
263
ba8ea749 264-W::
317f63c2 265--function-context::
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266 Show the surrounding text from the previous line containing a
267 function name up to the one before the next function name,
268 effectively showing the whole function in which the match was
269 found.
270
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271--threads <num>::
272 Number of grep worker threads to use.
273 See `grep.threads` in 'CONFIGURATION' for more information.
274
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275-f <file>::
276 Read patterns from <file>, one per line.
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277+
278Passing the pattern via <file> allows for providing a search pattern
279containing a \0.
280+
281Not all pattern types support patterns containing \0. Git will error
282out if a given pattern type can't support such a pattern. The
283`--perl-regexp` pattern type when compiled against the PCRE v2 backend
284has the widest support for these types of patterns.
285+
286In versions of Git before 2.23.0 patterns containing \0 would be
287silently considered fixed. This was never documented, there were also
288odd and undocumented interactions between e.g. non-ASCII patterns
289containing \0 and `--ignore-case`.
290+
291In future versions we may learn to support patterns containing \0 for
292more search backends, until then we'll die when the pattern type in
293question doesn't support them.
1c57119c 294
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295-e::
296 The next parameter is the pattern. This option has to be
bfb8306d 297 used for patterns starting with `-` and should be used in
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298 scripts passing user input to grep. Multiple patterns are
299 combined by 'or'.
300
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301--and::
302--or::
303--not::
304( ... )::
23bfbb81 305 Specify how multiple patterns are combined using Boolean
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306 expressions. `--or` is the default operator. `--and` has
307 higher precedence than `--or`. `-e` has to be used for all
308 patterns.
3acb27b6 309
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310--all-match::
311 When giving multiple pattern expressions combined with `--or`,
312 this flag is specified to limit the match to files that
313 have lines to match all of them.
314
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315-q::
316--quiet::
317 Do not output matched lines; instead, exit with status 0 when
318 there is a match and with non-zero status when there isn't.
319
bfb8306d 320<tree>...::
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321 Instead of searching tracked files in the working tree, search
322 blobs in the given trees.
1c57119c 323
fba0cbd9 324\--::
1c57119c 325 Signals the end of options; the rest of the parameters
3ac44408 326 are <pathspec> limiters.
2aba319a 327
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328<pathspec>...::
329 If given, limit the search to paths matching at least one pattern.
330 Both leading paths match and glob(7) patterns are supported.
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331+
332For more details about the <pathspec> syntax, see the 'pathspec' entry
333in linkgit:gitglossary[7].
2aba319a 334
76a8788c 335EXAMPLES
04416018 336--------
fba0cbd9 337
6cf378f0 338`git grep 'time_t' -- '*.[ch]'`::
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339 Looks for `time_t` in all tracked .c and .h files in the working
340 directory and its subdirectories.
341
6cf378f0 342`git grep -e '#define' --and \( -e MAX_PATH -e PATH_MAX \)`::
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343 Looks for a line that has `#define` and either `MAX_PATH` or
344 `PATH_MAX`.
345
5d2fc913 346`git grep --all-match -e NODE -e Unexpected`::
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347 Looks for a line that has `NODE` or `Unexpected` in
348 files that have lines that match both.
349
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350`git grep solution -- :^Documentation`::
351 Looks for `solution`, excluding files in `Documentation`.
352
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353NOTES ON THREADS
354----------------
355
356The `--threads` option (and the grep.threads configuration) will be ignored when
357`--open-files-in-pager` is used, forcing a single-threaded execution.
358
359When grepping the object store (with `--cached` or giving tree objects), running
360with multiple threads might perform slower than single threaded if `--textconv`
361is given and there're too many text conversions. So if you experience low
362performance in this case, it might be desirable to use `--threads=1`.
363
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364GIT
365---
9e1f0a85 366Part of the linkgit:git[1] suite