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 OPTIONS
  42 -------
  43 --cached::
  44         Instead of searching tracked files in the working tree, search
  45         blobs registered in the index file.
  46
  47 --no-index::
  48         Search files in the current directory that is not managed by Git.
  49
  50 --untracked::
  51         In addition to searching in the tracked files in the working
  52         tree, search also in untracked files.
  53
  54 --no-exclude-standard::
  55         Also search in ignored files by not honoring the `.gitignore`
  56         mechanism. Only useful with `--untracked`.
  57
  58 --exclude-standard::
  59         Do not pay attention to ignored files specified via the `.gitignore`
  60         mechanism.  Only useful when searching files in the current directory
  61         with `--no-index`.
  62
  63 --recurse-submodules::
  64         Recursively search in each submodule that is active and
  65         checked out in the repository.  When used in combination with the
  66         <tree> option the prefix of all submodule output will be the name of
  67         the parent project's <tree> object. This option has no effect
  68         if `--no-index` is given.
  69
  70 -a::
  71 --text::
  72         Process binary files as if they were text.
  73
  74 --textconv::
  75         Honor textconv filter settings.
  76
  77 --no-textconv::
  78         Do not honor textconv filter settings.
  79         This is the default.
  80
  81 -i::
  82 --ignore-case::
  83         Ignore case differences between the patterns and the
  84         files.
  85
  86 -I::
  87         Don't match the pattern in binary files.
  88
  89 --max-depth <depth>::
  90         For each <pathspec> given on command line, descend at most <depth>
  91         levels of directories. A value of -1 means no limit.
  92         This option is ignored if <pathspec> contains active wildcards.
  93         In other words if "a*" matches a directory named "a*",
  94         "*" is matched literally so --max-depth is still effective.
  95
  96 -r::
  97 --recursive::
  98         Same as `--max-depth=-1`; this is the default.
  99
 100 --no-recursive::
 101         Same as `--max-depth=0`.
 102
 103 -w::
 104 --word-regexp::
 105         Match the pattern only at word boundary (either begin at the
 106         beginning of a line, or preceded by a non-word character; end at
 107         the end of a line or followed by a non-word character).
 108
 109 -v::
 110 --invert-match::
 111         Select non-matching lines.
 112
 113 -h::
 114 -H::
 115         By default, the command shows the filename for each
 116         match.  `-h` option is used to suppress this output.
 117         `-H` is there for completeness and does not do anything
 118         except it overrides `-h` given earlier on the command
 119         line.
 120
 121 --full-name::
 122         When run from a subdirectory, the command usually
 123         outputs paths relative to the current directory.  This
 124         option forces paths to be output relative to the project
 125         top directory.
 126
 127 -E::
 128 --extended-regexp::
 129 -G::
 130 --basic-regexp::
 131         Use POSIX extended/basic regexp for patterns.  Default
 132         is to use basic regexp.
 133
 134 -P::
 135 --perl-regexp::
 136         Use Perl-compatible regular expressions for patterns.
 137 +
 138 Support for these types of regular expressions is an optional
 139 compile-time dependency. If Git wasn't compiled with support for them
 140 providing this option will cause it to die.
 141
 142 -F::
 143 --fixed-strings::
 144         Use fixed strings for patterns (don't interpret pattern
 145         as a regex).
 146
 147 -n::
 148 --line-number::
 149         Prefix the line number to matching lines.
 150
 151 --column::
 152         Prefix the 1-indexed byte-offset of the first match from the start of the
 153         matching line.
 154
 155 -l::
 156 --files-with-matches::
 157 --name-only::
 158 -L::
 159 --files-without-match::
 160         Instead of showing every matched line, show only the
 161         names of files that contain (or do not contain) matches.
 162         For better compatibility with 'git diff', `--name-only` is a
 163         synonym for `--files-with-matches`.
 164
 165 -O[<pager>]::
 166 --open-files-in-pager[=<pager>]::
 167         Open the matching files in the pager (not the output of 'grep').
 168         If the pager happens to be "less" or "vi", and the user
 169         specified only one pattern, the first file is positioned at
 170         the first match automatically. The `pager` argument is
 171         optional; if specified, it must be stuck to the option
 172         without a space. If `pager` is unspecified, the default pager
 173         will be used (see `core.pager` in linkgit:git-config[1]).
 174
 175 -z::
 176 --null::
 177         Use \0 as the delimiter for pathnames in the output, and print
 178         them verbatim. Without this option, pathnames with "unusual"
 179         characters are quoted as explained for the configuration
 180         variable core.quotePath (see linkgit:git-config[1]).
 181
 182 -o::
 183 --only-matching::
 184         Print only the matched (non-empty) parts of a matching line, with each such
 185         part on a separate output line.
 186
 187 -c::
 188 --count::
 189         Instead of showing every matched line, show the number of
 190         lines that match.
 191
 192 --color[=<when>]::
 193         Show colored matches.
 194         The value must be always (the default), never, or auto.
 195
 196 --no-color::
 197         Turn off match highlighting, even when the configuration file
 198         gives the default to color output.
 199         Same as `--color=never`.
 200
 201 --break::
 202         Print an empty line between matches from different files.
 203
 204 --heading::
 205         Show the filename above the matches in that file instead of
 206         at the start of each shown line.
 207
 208 -p::
 209 --show-function::
 210         Show the preceding line that contains the function name of
 211         the match, unless the matching line is a function name itself.
 212         The name is determined in the same way as `git diff` works out
 213         patch hunk headers (see 'Defining a custom hunk-header' in
 214         linkgit:gitattributes[5]).
 215
 216 -<num>::
 217 -C <num>::
 218 --context <num>::
 219         Show <num> leading and trailing lines, and place a line
 220         containing `--` between contiguous groups of matches.
 221
 222 -A <num>::
 223 --after-context <num>::
 224         Show <num> trailing lines, and place a line containing
 225         `--` between contiguous groups of matches.
 226
 227 -B <num>::
 228 --before-context <num>::
 229         Show <num> leading lines, and place a line containing
 230         `--` between contiguous groups of matches.
 231
 232 -W::
 233 --function-context::
 234         Show the surrounding text from the previous line containing a
 235         function name up to the one before the next function name,
 236         effectively showing the whole function in which the match was
 237         found. The function names are determined in the same way as
 238         `git diff` works out patch hunk headers (see 'Defining a
 239         custom hunk-header' in linkgit:gitattributes[5]).
 240
 241 --threads <num>::
 242         Number of grep worker threads to use.
 243         See `grep.threads` in 'CONFIGURATION' for more information.
 244
 245 -f <file>::
 246         Read patterns from <file>, one per line.
 247 +
 248 Passing the pattern via <file> allows for providing a search pattern
 249 containing a \0.
 250 +
 251 Not all pattern types support patterns containing \0. Git will error
 252 out if a given pattern type can't support such a pattern. The
 253 `--perl-regexp` pattern type when compiled against the PCRE v2 backend
 254 has the widest support for these types of patterns.
 255 +
 256 In versions of Git before 2.23.0 patterns containing \0 would be
 257 silently considered fixed. This was never documented, there were also
 258 odd and undocumented interactions between e.g. non-ASCII patterns
 259 containing \0 and `--ignore-case`.
 260 +
 261 In future versions we may learn to support patterns containing \0 for
 262 more search backends, until then we'll die when the pattern type in
 263 question doesn't support them.
 264
 265 -e::
 266         The next parameter is the pattern. This option has to be
 267         used for patterns starting with `-` and should be used in
 268         scripts passing user input to grep.  Multiple patterns are
 269         combined by 'or'.
 270
 271 --and::
 272 --or::
 273 --not::
 274 ( ... )::
 275         Specify how multiple patterns are combined using Boolean
 276         expressions.  `--or` is the default operator.  `--and` has
 277         higher precedence than `--or`.  `-e` has to be used for all
 278         patterns.
 279
 280 --all-match::
 281         When giving multiple pattern expressions combined with `--or`,
 282         this flag is specified to limit the match to files that
 283         have lines to match all of them.
 284
 285 -q::
 286 --quiet::
 287         Do not output matched lines; instead, exit with status 0 when
 288         there is a match and with non-zero status when there isn't.
 289
 290 <tree>...::
 291         Instead of searching tracked files in the working tree, search
 292         blobs in the given trees.
 293
 294 \--::
 295         Signals the end of options; the rest of the parameters
 296         are <pathspec> limiters.
 297
 298 <pathspec>...::
 299         If given, limit the search to paths matching at least one pattern.
 300         Both leading paths match and glob(7) patterns are supported.
 301 +
 302 For more details about the <pathspec> syntax, see the 'pathspec' entry
 303 in linkgit:gitglossary[7].
 304
 305 EXAMPLES
 306 --------
 307
 308 `git grep 'time_t' -- '*.[ch]'`::
 309         Looks for `time_t` in all tracked .c and .h files in the working
 310         directory and its subdirectories.
 311
 312 `git grep -e '#define' --and \( -e MAX_PATH -e PATH_MAX \)`::
 313         Looks for a line that has `#define` and either `MAX_PATH` or
 314         `PATH_MAX`.
 315
 316 `git grep --all-match -e NODE -e Unexpected`::
 317         Looks for a line that has `NODE` or `Unexpected` in
 318         files that have lines that match both.
 319
 320 `git grep solution -- :^Documentation`::
 321         Looks for `solution`, excluding files in `Documentation`.
 322
 323 NOTES ON THREADS
 324 ----------------
 325
 326 The `--threads` option (and the grep.threads configuration) will be ignored when
 327 `--open-files-in-pager` is used, forcing a single-threaded execution.
 328
 329 When grepping the object store (with `--cached` or giving tree objects), running
 330 with multiple threads might perform slower than single threaded if `--textconv`
 331 is given and there're too many text conversions. So if you experience low
 332 performance in this case, it might be desirable to use `--threads=1`.
 333
 334 CONFIGURATION
 335 -------------
 336
 337 grep.lineNumber::
 338         If set to true, enable `-n` option by default.
 339
 340 grep.column::
 341         If set to true, enable the `--column` option by default.
 342
 343 grep.patternType::
 344         Set the default matching behavior. Using a value of 'basic', 'extended',
 345         'fixed', or 'perl' will enable the `--basic-regexp`, `--extended-regexp`,
 346         `--fixed-strings`, or `--perl-regexp` option accordingly, while the
 347         value 'default' will return to the default matching behavior.
 348
 349 grep.extendedRegexp::
 350         If set to true, enable `--extended-regexp` option by default. This
 351         option is ignored when the `grep.patternType` option is set to a value
 352         other than 'default'.
 353
 354 grep.threads::
 355         Number of grep worker threads to use. If unset (or set to 0), Git will
 356         use as many threads as the number of logical cores available.
 357
 358 grep.fullName::
 359         If set to true, enable `--full-name` option by default.
 360
 361 grep.fallbackToNoIndex::
 362         If set to true, fall back to git grep --no-index if git grep
 363         is executed outside of a git repository.  Defaults to false.
 364
 365
 366 GIT
 367 ---
 368 Part of the linkgit:git[1] suite