Documentation/git-grep.txt

   1 git-grep(1)
   2 ===========
   3
   4 NAME
   5 ----
   6 git-grep - Print lines matching a pattern
   7
   8
   9 SYNOPSIS
  10 --------
  11 [verse]
  12 'git grep' [-a | --text] [-I] [--textconv] [-i | --ignore-case] [-w | --word-regexp]
  13            [-v | --invert-match] [-h|-H] [--full-name]
  14            [-E | --extended-regexp] [-G | --basic-regexp]
  15            [-P | --perl-regexp]
  16            [-F | --fixed-strings] [-n | --line-number] [--column]
  17            [-l | --files-with-matches] [-L | --files-without-match]
  18            [(-O | --open-files-in-pager) [<pager>]]
  19            [-z | --null]
  20            [ -o | --only-matching ] [-c | --count] [--all-match] [-q | --quiet]
  21            [--max-depth <depth>] [--[no-]recursive]
  22            [--color[=<when>] | --no-color]
  23            [--break] [--heading] [-p | --show-function]
  24            [-A <post-context>] [-B <pre-context>] [-C <context>]
  25            [-W | --function-context]
  26            [--threads <num>]
  27            [-f <file>] [-e] <pattern>
  28            [--and|--or|--not|(|)|-e <pattern>...]
  29            [--recurse-submodules] [--parent-basename <basename>]
  30            [ [--[no-]exclude-standard] [--cached | --no-index | --untracked] | <tree>...]
  31            [--] [<pathspec>...]
  32
  33 DESCRIPTION
  34 -----------
  35 Look for specified patterns in the tracked files in the work tree, blobs
  36 registered in the index file, or blobs in given tree objects.  Patterns
  37 are lists of one or more search expressions separated by newline
  38 characters.  An empty string as search expression matches all lines.
  39
  40
  41 CONFIGURATION
  42 -------------
  43
  44 grep.lineNumber::
  45         If set to true, enable `-n` option by default.
  46
  47 grep.column::
  48         If set to true, enable the `--column` option by default.
  49
  50 grep.patternType::
  51         Set the default matching behavior. Using a value of 'basic', 'extended',
  52         'fixed', or 'perl' will enable the `--basic-regexp`, `--extended-regexp`,
  53         `--fixed-strings`, or `--perl-regexp` option accordingly, while the
  54         value 'default' will return to the default matching behavior.
  55
  56 grep.extendedRegexp::
  57         If set to true, enable `--extended-regexp` option by default. This
  58         option is ignored when the `grep.patternType` option is set to a value
  59         other than 'default'.
  60
  61 grep.threads::
  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.
  64
  65 grep.fullName::
  66         If set to true, enable `--full-name` option by default.
  67
  68 grep.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
  72
  73 OPTIONS
  74 -------
  75 --cached::
  76         Instead of searching tracked files in the working tree, search
  77         blobs registered in the index file.
  78
  79 --no-index::
  80         Search files in the current directory that is not managed by Git.
  81
  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::
  91         Do not pay attention to ignored files specified via the `.gitignore`
  92         mechanism.  Only useful when searching files in the current directory
  93         with `--no-index`.
  94
  95 --recurse-submodules::
  96         Recursively search in each submodule that is active and
  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
  99         the parent project's <tree> object. This option has no effect
 100         if `--no-index` is given.
 101
 102 -a::
 103 --text::
 104         Process binary files as if they were text.
 105
 106 --textconv::
 107         Honor textconv filter settings.
 108
 109 --no-textconv::
 110         Do not honor textconv filter settings.
 111         This is the default.
 112
 113 -i::
 114 --ignore-case::
 115         Ignore case differences between the patterns and the
 116         files.
 117
 118 -I::
 119         Don't match the pattern in binary files.
 120
 121 --max-depth <depth>::
 122         For each <pathspec> given on command line, descend at most <depth>
 123         levels of directories. A value of -1 means no limit.
 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.
 127
 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
 135 -w::
 136 --word-regexp::
 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
 141 -v::
 142 --invert-match::
 143         Select non-matching lines.
 144
 145 -h::
 146 -H::
 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
 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
 159 -E::
 160 --extended-regexp::
 161 -G::
 162 --basic-regexp::
 163         Use POSIX extended/basic regexp for patterns.  Default
 164         is to use basic regexp.
 165
 166 -P::
 167 --perl-regexp::
 168         Use Perl-compatible regular expressions for patterns.
 169 +
 170 Support for these types of regular expressions is an optional
 171 compile-time dependency. If Git wasn't compiled with support for them
 172 providing this option will cause it to die.
 173
 174 -F::
 175 --fixed-strings::
 176         Use fixed strings for patterns (don't interpret pattern
 177         as a regex).
 178
 179 -n::
 180 --line-number::
 181         Prefix the line number to matching lines.
 182
 183 --column::
 184         Prefix the 1-indexed byte-offset of the first match from the start of the
 185         matching line.
 186
 187 -l::
 188 --files-with-matches::
 189 --name-only::
 190 -L::
 191 --files-without-match::
 192         Instead of showing every matched line, show only the
 193         names of files that contain (or do not contain) matches.
 194         For better compatibility with 'git diff', `--name-only` is a
 195         synonym for `--files-with-matches`.
 196
 197 -O[<pager>]::
 198 --open-files-in-pager[=<pager>]::
 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
 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]).
 206
 207 -z::
 208 --null::
 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)).
 213
 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
 219 -c::
 220 --count::
 221         Instead of showing every matched line, show the number of
 222         lines that match.
 223
 224 --color[=<when>]::
 225         Show colored matches.
 226         The value must be always (the default), never, or auto.
 227
 228 --no-color::
 229         Turn off match highlighting, even when the configuration file
 230         gives the default to color output.
 231         Same as `--color=never`.
 232
 233 --break::
 234         Print an empty line between matches from different files.
 235
 236 --heading::
 237         Show the filename above the matches in that file instead of
 238         at the start of each shown line.
 239
 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.
 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]).
 247
 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
 264 -W::
 265 --function-context::
 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
 271 --threads <num>::
 272         Number of grep worker threads to use.
 273         See `grep.threads` in 'CONFIGURATION' for more information.
 274
 275 -f <file>::
 276         Read patterns from <file>, one per line.
 277 +
 278 Passing the pattern via <file> allows for providing a search pattern
 279 containing a \0.
 280 +
 281 Not all pattern types support patterns containing \0. Git will error
 282 out if a given pattern type can't support such a pattern. The
 283 `--perl-regexp` pattern type when compiled against the PCRE v2 backend
 284 has the widest support for these types of patterns.
 285 +
 286 In versions of Git before 2.23.0 patterns containing \0 would be
 287 silently considered fixed. This was never documented, there were also
 288 odd and undocumented interactions between e.g. non-ASCII patterns
 289 containing \0 and `--ignore-case`.
 290 +
 291 In future versions we may learn to support patterns containing \0 for
 292 more search backends, until then we'll die when the pattern type in
 293 question doesn't support them.
 294
 295 -e::
 296         The next parameter is the pattern. This option has to be
 297         used for patterns starting with `-` and should be used in
 298         scripts passing user input to grep.  Multiple patterns are
 299         combined by 'or'.
 300
 301 --and::
 302 --or::
 303 --not::
 304 ( ... )::
 305         Specify how multiple patterns are combined using Boolean
 306         expressions.  `--or` is the default operator.  `--and` has
 307         higher precedence than `--or`.  `-e` has to be used for all
 308         patterns.
 309
 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
 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
 320 <tree>...::
 321         Instead of searching tracked files in the working tree, search
 322         blobs in the given trees.
 323
 324 \--::
 325         Signals the end of options; the rest of the parameters
 326         are <pathspec> limiters.
 327
 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.
 331 +
 332 For more details about the <pathspec> syntax, see the 'pathspec' entry
 333 in linkgit:gitglossary[7].
 334
 335 EXAMPLES
 336 --------
 337
 338 `git grep 'time_t' -- '*.[ch]'`::
 339         Looks for `time_t` in all tracked .c and .h files in the working
 340         directory and its subdirectories.
 341
 342 `git grep -e '#define' --and \( -e MAX_PATH -e PATH_MAX \)`::
 343         Looks for a line that has `#define` and either `MAX_PATH` or
 344         `PATH_MAX`.
 345
 346 `git grep --all-match -e NODE -e Unexpected`::
 347         Looks for a line that has `NODE` or `Unexpected` in
 348         files that have lines that match both.
 349
 350 `git grep solution -- :^Documentation`::
 351         Looks for `solution`, excluding files in `Documentation`.
 352
 353 NOTES ON THREADS
 354 ----------------
 355
 356 The `--threads` option (and the grep.threads configuration) will be ignored when
 357 `--open-files-in-pager` is used, forcing a single-threaded execution.
 358
 359 When grepping the object store (with `--cached` or giving tree objects), running
 360 with multiple threads might perform slower than single threaded if `--textconv`
 361 is given and there're too many text conversions. So if you experience low
 362 performance in this case, it might be desirable to use `--threads=1`.
 363
 364 GIT
 365 ---
 366 Part of the linkgit:git[1] suite